I've Got It Good
by Maipe
Summary: Jerry learns that when your post divorce rebound fling turns out to be the woman of your dreams, you have to admit that life is good, and good things are worth fighting for. Jerry/Tracey/Leo
1. Chapter 1

_I decided to write a multi-chapter piece. Not sure how long it will be, but I do already have the whole story mapped out. Just don't know how long it will take me to tell it. Enjoy, and please review so I know if it's working. Thanks._

Jerry slowly drifted awake. He was only vaguely aware of his phone vibrating on the nightstand, most of his attention was focused on the feel of his girlfriend's warm body pressed up against his own. This is the only way to wake up, he thought to himself. He had absolutely no desire to get out of bed and start the day. It felt good, deliciously good. Her back against his chest, his arm around her waist, fingers splayed across her stomach, their legs intertwined. The best part was that she was naked, and so was he, which was very convenient considering that clothing would interfere with the plans that were beginning to form in his mind, and they were really great plans.

This was his favorite part of the day, the part where he got to wake up with Traci. It didn't happen nearly as often as he would like it to. He was going to have to consider doing something about that soon. He missed her when she stayed over at her own apartment. He had done everything in his power to make sure she was comfortable staying with him. he had practically converted his spare bedroom into a bedroom for her son. But Traci still spent more nights at home than she did at his place. Maybe it was because she was still looking after McNally. When was that girl going to find her own apartment? He was seriously considering finding a realtor for her himself. It was the least he could do. Any friend of Traci's and all.

He shifted a little, careful not to wake her, so that he could look down at her. He knew that he should probably wake her up, she had to be work in a couple of hours, and she hated to be late. He glanced over at the clock and sighed. According to Traci's way of calculating time if she woke up right now, she would have just enough time to shower, dress, eat and get to work on time. According to his far more generous calculations they had at least one solid hour before she needed to get out of bed, maybe more. It might be self-serving, but he liked his calculations much better.

He loved watching her sleep. It was his sixth favorite thing to do in bed with her. Well seventh if he counted that thing they did when her legs were up around his… but to be honest he couldn't remember the last time they had actually done that in a bed, it seemed much better suited to that chair in the living room. So yes, watching her sleep was definitely his sixth favorite activity to engage in while in bed with Traci.

He had noticed a long time ago that how Traci slept said a lot about the state of their relationship. When they had first started fooling around it was nearly impossible to even get her to stay over. Most of the time she practically jumped right out of bed and rushed home after they had sex, which was kind of insulting at the time. It wasn't until much later that he found out she had a young son at home, and that was the reason she rarely spent the night. Later on in their relationship, when they had gotten more serious, she would stay over more often. Sometimes, when the three of them had spent the day together, her son would stay too, but that hadn't lasted long before she had broken up with him to try to make it work with Leo's father. Then of course when they had first started seeing each other again, while she was still technically with he-who-must-not-be-named, they were sneaking around, and she couldn't stay over. Now though she slept over a lot, sometimes alone, sometimes she and Leo both slept over, and when she slept she slept deeply, completely relaxed and comfortable. It made him feel like she trusted him, like she was at peace around him and all was right in their little world.

He sensed, even before she moved that she was waking up, so he wasn't surprised when she shifted, rolling over to face him and her eyes fluttered open.

"Good morning," He said smiling down at her.

Traci smiled in return as she stretched, "Good morning to you too. What time is it?"

"It's very early," Jerry said.

"My idea of early or your idea of early?" she asked pushing herself up onto one arm her head resting on her hand.

"Early, don't worry about it."

"Just because you have the day off doesn't mean that I don't have to get to work. I really appreciate you volunteering to keep Leo today, I hope you know that."

"Oh, so that was _appreciation_ you were showing me last night." Jerry said with a laugh as he reached over to brush back a lock of hair that had fallen across her face. "It's no problem. I have big plans for the two of us today, guy stuff. By the way, I was thinking, I should probably use your car today, piece of crap that it is, and you should take my car."

Traci looked at him in surprise. "I'm going to ignore your insulting my baby because it _is_ a piece of crap, and I can't believe I heard you right, you are actually offering to let me drive Stella?"

"You've driven her before."

"Uh no, never."

"Really?" Jerry frowned at her.

"Really, you looked at me like I was crazy when I even suggested it."

"No I didn't, you're exaggerating. You do that a lot, it's becoming a problem."

"Okay Jerry, we'll play this your way. You do not have an unhealthy attachment to your car, whom you have named Stella Ann Barber, it's all in my head."

"At least you admit it, and it's Stella _Anne_, I'm sure I didn't hear you not pronounce the silent _e._ But seriously, if I'm going to have Leo today I need a car with a back seat."

"That's true, I didn't think of that," Traci said as she sat up fully and began looking around for something to throw on.

"It's because I have to do all the thinking and planning in this relationship. You'd be lost without me."

Traci laughed. "If I left all the thinking and planning to you we'd never get out of bed."

"Excellent idea," Jerry said as he reached over and pulled her back down on the bed.

Traci giggled as she half-heartedly attempted to push him away and sit back up. "Jerry I have to go."

"Just five more minutes. I swear," he whispered as he began kissing her neck and throat. "I can't help it. You are so sexy in the morning, and at noon, and lunchtime, at 3:15 oh and 4:47pm, you totally kill at 4:47pm…"

Traci gave in. "Okay just five minutes, I mean it Jerry."

"Um hmm," Jerry agreed still working on her neck as he rolled onto his back pulling her on top of him.

**_Sixty-five_** minutes later Traci jumped out of bed ignoring what had to be Jerry's thirteenth plea for 'just five more minutes' and raced to the bathroom making sure to lock the door behind her to discourage any ideas Jerry might have of scrubbing her back. She managed to shower, fix her hair and make-up and throw on her clothes in record time. When she came out into the kitchen Jerry had already pulled on a tee shirt and pajama pants and was waiting for her with a muffin and a latte in a travel mug. She took them from him gratefully.

"Least I could do," he said with a smile.

"You're right, it was," she agreed as she pulled on her coat.

"Okay, my Mom should be dropping Leo off in about an hour," Traci reminded him as she anxiously looked around for her bag.

"One hour," Jerry repeated as he handed the missing bag to her. "I'll be showered and dressed and ready to greet your Mom and Leo. You should hurry, I think you're a little behind schedule."

Traci glared at him. "Wipe that self satisfied grin off your face Barber," she snapped as he walked her to the door.

"What grin, am I grinning? I'm not grinning, and I'm certainly not _self-_satisfied. _Traci-_satisfied yes, for the moment at least," Jerry said pulling her close for a goodbye kiss.

"If I'm late I'm going to kill you," Traci tried to give him her meanest look possible, but he ignored it and started kissing her neck.

"I didn't make you do anything you didn't want to do, _twice_. I kind of impressed myself there that second time, that was unexpected. I guess you inspire me. We can do it again tonight after Leo's asleep."

"If you're lucky. Now leave me alone," Traci said pushing away from him. "I have to go."

"Five more…"

"Shut up Jerry."

He grinned as she grabbed his car keys off the hook and ran out the door. He was in for an exciting and active day with Leo today. He planned to do everything in his power to make sure Leo was passed out from exhaustion by no later than eight.

* * *

><p>Traci ran into the locker room and checked her watch. Thankfully she still had time to spare.<p>

She was glad to see Andy was standing at their lockers and already half dressed.

Andy gave her the once over, taking in her flushed appearance. "So, someone didn't make it home last night, Chris and Gail gave me a ride in by the way thanks for asking," She said feigning annoyance. Even though her own love life was in the crapper she still had room in her heart to be happy for her best friend, but it was still fun to rag on Traci.

"Just because we live together doesn't make you the boss of me Andy McNally. I'm a big girl now," Traci said as she began to quickly undress.

"I'll bet, up all night playing Cops and Hookers with Detective Barber," Andy laughed. "I'm glad you two are working out."

"It is working out," Traci said smiling shoving her clothes into her locker. "Things are really great right now. I don't know, it feels like it's growing at the right pace, you know. It's organic."

Andy rolled her eyes. "Like a fungus?"

"You really are a joy to talk to these days. A true romantic."

"What? You're the one talking about how organic your relationship is. Fungi are organic. They grow." Andy said as she handed Traci her uniform shirt.

"Thanks. I'm going to ignore that. I guess I should just be glad you've stopped moping around the apartment listening to Adele. Leo and I couldn't take it much longer."

"I wasn't listening to Adele that much."

"My son now knows all the words to Rolling In the Deep."

"It's a good song, maybe he likes it."

"He's seven years old singing 'the scars of your love remind me of us'."

"Jesus Traci, don't go blaming me for your son's musical tastes, maybe the kid is just more mature than you give him credit for, he feels things deeply. You don't know everything about Leo, he has layers, like an onion."

"Umm hmm, 'the scars of your love, they leave me breathless'."

"Shut it Trace. So was that Jerry's studmobile I saw you rolling up in, he let you drive it?"

"Yeah, I was shocked too. He's hanging with Leo today so he wanted to take my car."

"Wow, Uncle Jerry duty all day. Now that's love."

"What can I say, he loves me and he loves my kid. I'm a lucky girl."

"Well, Leo is definitely lovable. He let me finish off the the ice cream two nights ago and didn't say a word."

"It's because he likes you, and he's glad you've moved on from singing 'don't underestimate the things that I will do'."

"Seriously, shut it. So what are Uncle Jerry and Leo up to today?"

"Ugh, stop calling him that. I've always hated that calling your Mom's boyfriend Uncle So and So stuff, it's creepy. Your Mama should not be banging your Uncle Anybody. Leo calls him Jerry. My Mom is picking Leo up from Dex's and then she's dropping him off with Jerry for me."

"Why doesn't Jerry just pick him up?"

"Oh yeah, I can see that now. Jerry rolling up at Dex's with a hey Dex my man, how's it hanging? Good to see you, no hard feelings on the whole infidelity thing right? Who me? Yeah I'm still slipping it to your baby Momma every chance I get, just came to get your kid so I can steal his affections too, peace out."

"You might have a point there it could be a bit awkward."

"Ya think? So that's why my Mom is bringing Leo to Jerry's and then they have some sort of big plans today, it's all very hush, hush."

"He's already got your son conspiring against you?"

"Are you kidding? He got us season tickets to the Leafs. As long as it doesn't involving killing me and burying my body in High Park Jerry can pretty much get Leo to do anything he wants."

"Dex must love that."

Traci shrugged. "What can he do about it? Leo loves his dad, as long as Dex doesn't screw it up nothing's going to change that. He just likes Jerry too, and Jerry likes him. Jerry works really hard to have a relationship with Leo you know. He doesn't push or anything, he just makes sure that Leo knows that he's wanted and not in the way or anything. He's great with Leo. It's actually pretty cool that they have their own thing going on."

"You've got it bad."

Finally ready Traci slammed her locker shut. "No, I've got it good, and don't think I don't know it."


	2. Chapter 2

"So, what do you think? Slippers?" Jerry asked holding them up for Leo's approval.

Leo rolled his eyes. "That's so boring."

Jerry looked down at the offending item. They weren't boring, well maybe a little boring. "What? I don't see you coming up with any ideas, and she needs slippers. I know she's your mother, and you look up to her and all, but the woman is a shameless slipper thief. She's always wearing my slippers."

"That's because you always tell her don't walk around barefoot, your feet will get cold, wear my slippers." Leo giggled.

The kid did have a point. "I tell her to wear them because if I didn't she'd steal them anyway and I didn't want you to find out that your mother is a slipper thief." Jerry shook his head. "I just don't get it, how can she buy you two pairs of slippers to keep at my house, and she has none?"

"Because you always let her wear yours," Leo repeated.

This was definitely Traci's child. Always feeling the need to call it like he saw it.

"You're probably right. I tell you what, they might not qualify as the perfect gift, but we'll buy the slippers anyway, and give them to her when we get home as a just because we like you gift."

"We bought the robe just because we like her."

Jerry shrugged. "So what, we like her a lot, she's very likeable. Anyway the slippers match the robe, so we'll get her the slippers too," Jerry said grabbing a pair in her size, and leading Leo over to the cashier.

After they made the purchase they walked out of the store and back out into the mall. Jerry looked around for a moment. He was out of shopping ideas for the moment. He still couldn't figure out what he wanted to get Traci for Christmas. His little side project might take longer than he thought it would.

"We aren't very good at this Leo, we need to find the perfect gift."

"She always says anything we give her is perfect."

Yeah right, Jerry thought. It was time to enlighten his little protégée on one of life's many little cruel jokes.

"I'm going to tell you a secret Leo. One of the most important things I will ever share with you. You know how your mother says anything _we_ get her will be perfect? She only means that for you. Anything _you _get her will be perfect. You could pick up any random rock outside, slap some paint on it, wrap it up in old newspaper tied with a raggedy bow and call it a paperweight and she'll think it's the greatest thing she's ever gotten. Why? Because _you_ gave it to her and she'll treasure that rock forever. By the way, you should know that she's the only woman in your life from now on who will feel that way so appreciate it. But me, I can't just give your Mom a rock, unless it's at least a semi precious stone in precious metal setting, or it's a rock related to some incredibly significant moment in her life or something. Now I know your mother. She isn't looking for me to spend a lot of money on her, or buy some big fabulous gift; she's not like that, which is reason number thirty-eight why I love her. But when she said to me that anything I get her will be perfect, she means that anything I get her that shows I know what she likes and doesn't like, that I listen to her, understand her interests and her needs, that I respect her as a person, I value and appreciate her, she holds a special place in my life and my heart, and I actually know her sizes, will be perfect."

Leo looked at him in confusion. "Wow."

Jerry nodded. "Exactly. Wow. Welcome to my world. Don't feel bad, it all goes right over my head too. But now you see what I have to deal with. That's a lot of pressure on a guy. So I'm thinking this might require a little bit more thought."

"You really stink at this Jerry."

"I know, I'm dying here." They had been at it for the past thirty minutes, which he estimated to be about twenty minutes longer than the average seven year old was willing to spend shopping for his mother. Leo was being a real sport about it though, and he deserved a break. It was time for the rest of his plans for the day. "You know what, shopping isn't working for us. I give up for today. We'll figure this out later, we have two more months before Christmas, that's plenty of time to get inspired right? So, you want to go to play laser tag?"

Leo looked up excitedly, and then his face fell as he remembered something."Mommy says no guns."

"What guns? There are no guns, they just have laser thingies."

"Laser _guns_."

"Please, I'm a cop, you think I don't know guns? I know guns, and those aren't guns, no bullets, no projectiles of any kind at all involved. It's just a light show with a trigger. How could your Mom possibly have a problem with a light show with a trigger? It's not like we're playing paintball or something. Come on, we'll play for awhile, and we'll run around as much as you want."

Leo looked down at Jerry's feet and back up questioningly.

"What? These are my running loafers." Jerry laughed. "Just kidding, I have sneakers in the car, I plan ahead."

Suitably convinced, Leo grinned and grabbed Jerry's hand talking excitedly all the way back to the car.

* * *

><p>Jerry pulled the car out of the market parking lot. He had decided that Traci deserved to come home to a nice dinner and he was going to cook it for her, so he and Leo had ended their day out with a quick food shopping. He was pretty proud of himself. Leo had managed to con him into cookies and the sugariest cereal imaginable for the morning, but he drew the line at the several different kinds of candy Leo was trying to smooth talk him into, well he did get him one small bag, but that was a definite improvement over the family sized packs Leo was angling for.<p>

He looked in the rearview mirror to check on Leo in the back seat. They had a good day, they didn't get to spend enough together alone. He should find a way to do something about that too. Three hours of laser tag and then a movie and the kid was still going strong. He had to admit, he was impressed. The laser tag was the best, they had totally annihilated this father and son team Ray and Mike. Mike was a little older than Leo, but he just didn't have Leo's reflexes. That kid could duck and dodge like a pro, and he was fast. Jerry couldn't hide the little rush of pride he got watching Leo run through the course on the attack. When Ray had complemented him on his _son's_ athleticism Jerry didn't bother to correct him, what was he supposed to say anyway; no he's just my girlfriend's kid? That didn't seem quite right. Someone needed to come up with a term that covered "my girlfriend's child who I'm growing to care very much for and who I like being around just because he's him."

"So are you ready for the game Saturday night it's the Leafs _vs._ the Flames? Both your Mom and I are off, so it will be all three of us, and Ollie."

"Not Sam? Sam's funny."

"Nope, your Mom said that Sam says too many things that you shouldn't be hearing when the game isn't going his way. Mommy put Sammy on punishment for awhile."

"That's okay, I like Ollie too."

"And he likes you. He needs to hang out with a boy every once in a while, too many girls in his life."

"I like it when we go to the games."

"I do too," Jerry replied. He liked it a lot.

"Even though I can't really talk to my Dad about it."

Jerry glanced up at the mirror again. This was new, he hadn't heard this one before. "What do you mean?"

"Mommy said that I really shouldn't talk about going to the games with you when I'm with Daddy."

"Oh did she now." Jerry said mildly annoyed. It made sense that Traci would say that to keep the peace. He supposed Dex couldn't be too thrilled about Leo spending so much time around him, all things considered. Though as much as he understood it intellectually it still irritated him to think that Leo never mentioned him around Dex, while _he_ had to hear about Dex all the time. The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them. "Well you know you shouldn't really lie to your Dad or keep things from him. I mean he likes hockey too, I'm sure he'd love to hear how much fun you have at the games with us."

Jerry Barber you are going to Hell for that, he thought to himself. You are going to Hell, in a middle seat between a guy who snores and an old lady who talks non-stop with a crying baby behind you, in coach seating on a flight with layovers in all sorts of little mini hells and not even the tiniest bag of peanuts. The more he thought about it the more he realized that, not only was he going to hell, but Traci was going to be the one to send him there if she ever found out that he had just tried to use Leo to jab at Dex. Oh man she was going to think hell was too good for him, he needed to clean this up, fast. "Never mind, forget what I just said. You should listen to your Mom." He said weakly.

He peeked up at the rearview mirror wondering how much of that sunk into Leo's head. You could never tell with Leo, he was a smart kid, sometimes he understood things a little too well. Great, Jerry thought, now he's going to tell Traci that her insecure boyfriend is attempting to use him to compete with his dad. If she didn't dump him altogether Traci was definitely going to never let him spend time with Leo again.

He was being paranoid. He knew it. Making a big deal out of nothing. This wouldn't get back to Traci. Leo wouldn't even remember it, and if it did get back to Traci he could always remind her that Dex had punched him in the face and he let go. There had to be plenty of mileage left on that one, since he never bought it up. It could be considered his "sure what I did was petty and small but he had it coming" get out of jail free card. That thought provided him with a bit of comfort as he pulled into an empty parking spot in front of his building, and unloaded Leo and the bags from the car.

"So should I tell Daddy about the game?" Leo asked as they walked into the apartment.

Damn. Jerry almost dropped the bags he was carefully balancing in his arms. "Uh no, no, I mean not unless you want to. I mean don't do anything because of what I said. I mean no. What exactly did your mother tell you?"

Leo helped him by taking the bags holding Traci's gifts from him and followed him into the kitchen. "When I told her that I had fun going to the games with you and I couldn't wait to tell Daddy all about it, she said that it was great that I had a good time, but maybe we shouldn't talk about it with Daddy so much because it might hurt his feelings since he doesn't come with us, and his feelings were hurt when I told him all about the Zoo and the Centerville rides."

"You told him all about that?"

Leo nodded.

"And it hurt his feelings?"

Leo nodded again.

Jerry scolded himself. That felt way too good Barber, you should be ashamed of yourself, taking pleasure in another man's pain. You are petty and small. "Well your mom is right. We wouldn't want to hurt your Daddy's feelings, so you probably shouldn't talk about it. Too much." Where did that come from? Apparently he just needed to start investing in fire retardant suits, since he seemed so determined to end up in Hell.

"Why don't you go set up the video games, while I start dinner. We'll play until your Mom gets home."

"Cool. Umm, can we play Death Domain?" Leo asked sweetly looking up at him with Traci's eyes.

That kid was going to be a real charmer when he got older. "No we can not play Death Domain."

* * *

><p>Traci pulled out her keys to open the door. Even though Jerry had given her the keys to his apartment weeks ago, she still got a kick every time she used them.<p>

He had given them to her the same way he did so many things, playing it off as though it was no big deal when it was. Like acting like letting her drive Stella wasn't a momentous occasion, or the way he had started casually throwing the word love around to downplay the moment when he said it and genuinely meant it. "You don't have crazy rules, that's why I love you," or, "you understand my crazy schedule, that's why I love you". He used the word so easily sometimes, that she might have missed the moment when he for the first time sincerely and simply whispered, "I love you Trace," to her.

Ninety-nine percent of the men she knew would consider giving their girlfriend the key to their apartment a major relationship advancement, and play it up as such. Not Jerry. He had to make it seem like business as usual, or even an afterthought.

One weekend when she was staying with him she had to run out the drugstore he carelessly suggested that she use the _spare_ keys hanging on the hook to get back in. Then he added that if she was going to use them she might as well just hold onto them since she spent so much time at his place anyway. She had spent more than enough time there to know full well that there was never a set of spare keys hanging on that hook until that very weekend. Furthermore, as pristine and shiny as they were, they had never been used until she used them for the first time. She didn't say anything to him though, she just made it a point to be extra nice to him, but she knew, and she knew he knew that she knew. Sometimes Jerry Barber was a strange and complex man.

As soon as she opened the door she was greeted by an intoxicating smell. Lord love the man, he cooked, and she was starving. She walked into the living room where she found Jerry and Leo sprawled on opposite ends of the sofa, intently playing a video game and trash talking each other. She smiled. She loved watching the two of them together.

"Hey, what smells so good?"

They both looked up at the sound of her voice, Leo tossed his controller aside and ran up to hug her.

"Mommy!" he said excitedly as she took him in her arms and hugged him. "We bought you a present."

Jerry came up to her and kissed her softly in greeting. "Hey babe." He untangled Leo from her so that he could take her bag and jacket.

"Here, take this," He said handing a giggling Leo back to her. "We're having fusilli with Italian turkey sausage and arugula."

"Mmm sounds delicious," Traci commented lifting her som up in her arms. "You are getting way too heavy for this."

"I'm having spaghetti," Leo added.

"That's because you have no sense of adventure," Jerry teased. "I don't get it, he eats bulgogi at the drop of a hat, but you won't try a little pasta and sausage?"

"There's stuff in it," Leo said wrinkling up his nose as Traci put him down.

Jerry sighed. They had had this argument three times already tonight. "They're called vegetables, you should try them they won't kill you."

"That's a lost cause lately. He tries to avoid eating anything that might contain a vitamin or mineral, you have to outsmart him." Traci said with a laugh.

Jerry leaned over and whispered to her. "I did, I put 'stuff' in the spaghetti sauce."

"Smart man, you're catching on." She looked around. "So, what can I help with?"

"You can grab the wine, we've got everything else under control, we were just waiting for you so we could have a late dinner. Leo wanted to eat with you."

"And I want to eat with him," Traci said ruffling her sons hair before grabbing the bottle of wine and two glasses and following Jerry to the table. She sat down in the chair Jerry had pulled out for her as Leo scrambled into his own seat.

Jerry went back into the kitchen and then brought out the food placing a plate in front of Traci, and a plate of spaghetti in front of Leo. Traci poured a glass of wine for him and one for herself. "Very nice Detective Barber."

"I try Officer Nash." He glanced over at Leo who was busily digging into his spaghetti.

"I can't believe you won't try the fusilli. It's just like macaroni with attitude. After all we've been through how can you have so little faith in me?" he complained.

"It's macaroni gone wrong." Leo retorted. "But your spaghetti is good," he added in a conciliatory tone.

"I guess I'll take what I can get," Jerry said as he went back into the kitchen for his own plate muttering "This kid. Macaroni gone wrong?"

He came back out to the table and joined them.

"So honey how was your day?" He said smiling at Traci as he sat down.

"You've been waiting all day to run that line on me haven't you?"

"Kinda sorta."

She laughed. "It was pretty tame. I rode with Ollie, we were doing crowd control at a street fair. A few drunk and disorderlies and a purse snatcher. No biggie. And how was your day?"

"Ask Leo."

"We had fun Mommy. Jerry and I shot a bunch of people."

"Really?" She turned to Jerry.

Jerry refrained from giving Leo a dirty look, the kid had tons of charm, but no spin talents, always telling a story in the worse possible way. That was another thing they were going to have to work on, finesse. "We weren't shooting people, we were playing laser tag, which provides an excellent physical workout, while giving the young lad an opportunity to explore concepts of teamwork, science and strategy."

Traci laughed. "Nice spin on it, but unnecessary. Laser tag is cool with me."

Jerry sighed in relief and turned to Leo. "See, I told you she would approve."

They ate their meal talking occasionally, filling in one another on the highlights of their day. Leo managed to describe Traci's new robe and slippers to her in full detail between bites, without letting her know that they were shopping for her Christmas gift, and contradicting Jerry's story that they had just happened to see them when walking through the mall. Jerry had to grin, maybe the kid did have some finesse. If anyone had of told him two years ago that on this very day he would be sitting at the dinner table with his girlfriend and her seven year old son, talking about robes and slippers, and that it would be the only place that he would want to be, he would have said they were crazy. Actually he probably would have arrested them for being under the influence of something. But here he was, and there they were and he was undeniably happy that things had turned out the way that they had.

Traci pushed her empty dinner plate away. "This was very nice Barber. I like a man with many talents."

"He looked it up on the computer, followed the instructions." Leo said.

Yup, no finesse, and no loyalty either. "The recipe, and thanks a lot buddy, what happened to that being our little secret? You're messing up my image here."

Traci laughed. "I like that you took the time to look up a recipe for me even better than I liked thinking you just whipped something up. Going the extra mile is pretty cool."

"Yeah?" Jerry asked smiling at her.

"Oh yeah," she answered smiling back.

"Ugh, yuck. Cut it out." Leo said rolling his eyes.

Traci looked at him in confusion. "Cut what out?"

"Making kissy eyes at each other," Leo explained.

"What exactly are kissy eyes?" Traci asked.

"When we are watching those movies she likes to watch Aunt Andy says when the guy and the girl look at each other like that they are making kissy eyes and kissy eyes are disgusting, because you can't trust guys with kissy eyes and bad things happen when people make kissy eyes. Then she skips to the next part of the movie."

"You have got to find that woman an apartment." Jerry said. He silently mouthed "And a man."

Traci gave him a dirty look. "Aunt Andy was joking Leo. She's just in a mood. Are you all finished with your dinner?" When he nodded she continued, "Then why don't you go and get ready for your bath."

"Okay Mommy." Leo jumped up from the table and ran to the room that was quickly becoming his.

Jerry reached over and refilled Traci's wine glass. "Go sit down on the sofa, I'll clean up, and I have dessert for us."

She raised an eyebrow. "Dessert, oh really?"

"Get your mind out of the gutter Nash. A real dessert, one that involves plates and forks." He laughed as he started to clear the table.

"What, none for Leo?"

"Your son, the child I like to call the human vacuum cleaner, already had enough sweets today to last him a lifetime."

"You're a mean Mom Jerry. Everybody should get dessert."

"Half a pack of chocolate chip cookies, a bag of Twizzlers, some M & M's, and I swear I think I caught him trying to eat raw sugar out of the cabinet."

"Well, like I said, no dessert for him," Traci recanted.

Jerry called out to her from the kitchen. "Oh, by the way speaking of _Aunt _Andy, when we were in the car I had the radio on and, do you know she taught Leo the words to…"

"_Rolling In the Deep_, I know. He also now sings a mean _Some One Like You, _really gets into it."

Jerry laughed. "I thought she was getting better, not spreading her misery."

"She _is _getting better. Though you know what would _really_ make her better."

"Don't say it." Jerry knew exactly where this was going, they had this conversation before.

"Come on, just a little shove in the right direction."

"Traci, babe, you don't shove Sammy in any direction. He's unshoveable. If I shove he'll just shove back to be contrary. He's a very contrary guy. You should know that, you've partnered with him before. You have to let him move at his own pace."

Traci sucked her teeth. "Glaciers move faster than his pace."

"Well maybe, but if it's going to happen it will happen organically."

"What like a fungus?

Jerry screwed his face up at her, "What? No, not like a fungus, just naturally. He'll come around. Probably…eventually…maybe."

"That's really encouraging."

"Hey if you want them together that badly you should tell McNally to make the first move." Jerry suggested. "That's the only way that train is going to leave the station anytime soon. Now can we stop talking about Swarek and McNally's twisted non-relationship?"

"Okay, okay. She's just my friend and I want her to be happy, like I am."

"Well Sam's my friend and I want him to be happy too." Jerry thought about that for a moment. A happy Sam. Could such a creature really exist? Could the universe take it? "Well, not blissfully floating around in a constant state of joy happy, that would just be unnatural and wrong, very wrong. But a moderately happy Sam would be good, maybe a little less snarky too. And now we come to the end of the talking about other people portion of our evening, unless you want to maybe meddle in Ollie and Zoë's lives."

"Not as much potential for meddling there. They are already happy. I like Zoë."

"She likes you too." Jerry said joining her on the sofa. "At least I hear she's finally stopped referring to you as Jerry's hot young thing." He flung his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

Traci rested her head on his shoulder. "I _am_ your hot young thing, and you're my Old Man." She said not even trying to hide the laughter in her voice.

He grimaced. "Yup, that joke _never_ gets tired."

"It's kind of funny," She giggled snuggling in closer to him.

Jerry squeezed her shoulder. "No it's not."

"It's a little funny. All_ Hot for Teacher_ and all."

"Hot for Instructor, I was your instructor and you were a consenting adult who chased after me."

"So that's how you remember it?"

"Yup, That's my story and I'm sticking to it."

"I like the real story better." She pulled away from him and turned so that they were facing each other. "Wait, wait, let me get my Mac Daddy vibe going."

He watched in amusement as she fixed her expression into a patented Jerry Barber I'm so smooth smirk. "So that's supposed to me?" He asked playfully.

"It's so you." She said deepened her voice and looked him up and down, licking her lips slightly to complete the impersonation. "Ah Cadet Nash, I was thinking that maybe you and I should ah continue this discussion over a ah _hot _cup of coffee."

"That was me huh?"

"Yup, then cue bra straps unhooking panties flying and _bow chicka wow wow_."

Jerry pulled her over so that she was straddling his lap with his hands on her hips holding her in place, and began nuzzling her neck. "Well you know, that's my super power," he whispered against the flesh of her throat. "Making your bra straps pop open and your panties fly with a few smooth moves and some thinly veiled sexual innuendos. You know you love my Mac Daddy vibe."

Traci purred as he pulled her in closer. "I do love it. It's very sexy."

"Mommy, I'm ready," Leo called from the hallway.

"And cue the return to reality." Traci groaned slightly as she quickly rolled off of him and onto the sofa preparing to get up.

Jerry laughed. "That's his super power, one of them at least." He gently stopped her from rising. "Don't worry I got this, enjoy your wine." He pushed himself up from the sofa and walked towards the hallway. "Come on Leo, I'll run your bath, and when you're done I'll tell you a bedtime story all about how your Aunt Andy once arrested Sammy."

Leo looked at him doubtfully. "She can't arrest Sam, he's a copper too."

"And you would think that would stop her," Jerry replied as they walked off to the bathroom.

"But she's a girl and Sam's tough."

"See, now that's what we all thought too, but apparently he can't even beat a girl." At that point the bathroom door closed cutting off the rest of their conversation from her.

Traci stifled a laugh. She was going to hear about this when she and Leo were home and he started grilling Andy about how could she have arrested Sam. Jerry was such a troublemaker.

She kicked off her shoes, tucked her legs up under her and leaned back into the sofa taking another long sip of wine. This was the life, she could get used to this.

An hour later she opened her eyes and realized that she had fallen asleep. She glanced around wondering where Jerry had gone to, and why he had let her sleep so long. She uncurled herself from the sofa and got up to look around. Everything was already cleaned and put away. She walked down to the spare bedroom and poked her head in the door.

Leo was all tucked in and turned over on his side facing the wall fast asleep. Jerry was lying on his back next to him his arms folded across his chest breathing evenly and deeply. She stood there for a moment taking it in. They looked so natural lying there next to each other, the most important person in the world to her and the man who was becoming more and more essential to her every day. She thought back to the night she had approached him in the parking lot and confessed that she had missed him. Definitely one of the smartest things she had ever done. Her life was better with him in it.

Jerry shifted slightly and opened his eyes.

"Hey you," he whispered.

She whispered back, "Hey."

"Is he still asleep?"

She looked over at her a son again to be sure and nodded. "Knocked out and probably down for the night."

"Good. He made me tell him a few stories. I think he has a man crush on Sam." Jerry smiled and closed his eyes again.

"Him and Dov both. Well then, I'm going to hop in the shower." She said.

"Okay," he murmured, seeming perfectly content to remain where he was.

Traci raised an eyebrow. Apparently she had to spell things out for him. "I was thinking that I could use some help washing my back," she added suggestively.

That got his attention. Jerry's eyes flew opened and he turned to look at her. "Yeah?"

"Oh yeah." She turned and walked towards the bathroom, counting in her head, five, four, three, two…She jumped slightly and gasped as Jerry came up suddenly behind her wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her up slightly.

"I would love to wash your back for you Officer Nash," he said.

"That took you less time than I thought it would."

"I like to keep you on your toes." He maneuvered her into the bathroom and closed the door behind them.

"You seemed pretty tired a few minutes ago," she teased. "Are you sure you don't want to just go back to sleep. I mean if you're that exhausted I can shower by myself, and hey, I thought we were going to have dessert"

"Stop talking Traci," he whispered as he pressed her back against the door and began kissing her, his hands busily pulling off her clothing.


	3. Chapter 3

Jerry sat at the table in Oliver's basement watching Sam's face closely for clues as to what his hand was like. They had already been playing for four hours, and though he was comfortably ahead the thought of Sam going home with even bus fare in his pocket annoyed Jerry. Sam had taken him for a big chunk of change at their last game, and he was feeling the need for revenge.

This round was down to him Sam and Oliver, Frank had already folded and was pouring himself another whiskey just watching the action.

"So what exactly do you have on her?" Sam asked glancing back at his cards, "Check."

"What are you talking about?" Jerry asked giving the board another look. "Check."

"Your girlfriend, what do you have on her? Nash has too much class to be with you for straight cash payments," Sam explained. "So I'm assuming its blackmail of some sort. Some youthful indiscretion you're holding over her head, or she's here illegally. An undocumented worker from Ohio? I got it, she's the head of a major drug cartel. Always knew that girl had leadership potential. You can tell us, we're off duty we won't bust her."

Oliver laughed. "Check. Maybe he's holding her kid hostage? Anyone see Leo around lately?"

"Funny. You're all a bunch of comedians now."

"You have to admit, rookie or not she is way out of your league Jerry." Frank added.

"Yeah brother, how'd you manage it? You aren't running that I only have a few months to live con again are you?" Oliver asked as he dealt another burn card.

"Maybe she just appreciates my many charms."

"Bullshit, you don't have _that_ many charms, " Sam scoffed. "It's got to be the whole maternal instinct thing. Nash is a nurturer. She probably feels the need to take care of every sad and sorry stray that comes her way."

"Ah, pity sex," Ollie said with a nod, as he dealt the river. "Yeah, pity sex can get you a long way."

"You would know." Frank said with a laugh.

Sam grinned and threw a hundred into the pot, "Either of you suckers feeling lucky?"

Jerry called.

Oliver looked at his cards and the board one last time as though expecting them to magically change to something better. "Damn you Swarek. I fold."

"So it's you and me Barber, let's do this. Pow," Sam shouted, turning over his cards. "Full house baby, kings full of tens. Who's your Daddy?"

"Thankfully not you Sammy Boy," Jerry said flipping his cards. "Straight flush. Read em and weep. And _that's_ why Traci loves me, because I make so much money off of you guys that I can keep her in style,"

Sam grumbled. "You dog. Awfully cocky for a guy who almost went home bald last game. You're lucky I just emptied your pockets. I'm done"

Jerry grinned as he swept the pot over to him "That was then, this is now, and tonight I'm on fire!"

Oliver shook his head, "Well hose yourself down, I'm done too. What is up with you always betting some form of hair when you go broke anyway?"

"Yeah well, Ollie we all pray that you'll be forced to bet that rug on your back one day." Sammy joked.

"I can't wait. Wax on, Wax off," Jerry snickered.

Oliver laughed sarcastically, "Yeah, maybe I'll go to the lady who does your eyebrows Jerry."

"Ha, ha, ha, don't hate me because I groom."

"Mr. Metro sexual over here," Sam snapped.

"Seriously Sammy? You're cracking jokes? I know your sister man she's shown me the pictures. You don't go from being a preteen with caveman uni-brow to thick but tamed without a little professional help."

"Ouch." Ollie added. "So ah Frank awfully quiet tonight. I've been meaning to ask you, what's the deal with you and Noelle?"

"Don't know Shaw, why don't I tell her you were asking about her and see what she has to say about it?

Oliver flinched. "No thank you, moving right along."

"Smart man." Frank said pushing up from the table. "On that note I bid you gentlemen goodnight."

Jerry nodded at him. "Thanks for the cash buddy, it was a pleasure doing business with you. And don't worry Staff Sergeant, I'll still respect you in the morning."

"Wait up, I'm heading out too." Sam said pushing away from the table and grabbing his jacket. "Yeah, Frank, I'm feeling a little tickle in the back of my throat. Might be coming down with something."

"Don't even try to call in sick Swarek." Frank said as he started up the stairs.

Sam whined. "Come on, I think it might be like the flu or something."

"I'd see you out, but I don't want to," Ollie said waving them off as he took one last swig of his beer. "Just close the door behind you."

Jerry looked over at Oliver, who was managing to sway on his feet even though he was sitting down. Oh yeah. He was going to feel it in the morning.

"Let me help you clean up some of this so Zoë doesn't kill you man."

"Don't worry about it. She never comes down here for at least two days after a game to give me time to fix it up, she's good to me like that."

Jerry downed the rest of his whiskey and began to happily count his winnings.

Ollie watched him through his one open eye. "You are annoyingly chipper. How is it that you drink as much as I do and are never as drunk? If you say it's your super power I swear I'll shoot you. I can do it too, I own a gun."

"Which fortunately isn't a problem since you're too drunk to figure out how to open your lock box and get it out, so I'm safe for now. Nice to see Zoë let you back in the house man. Even let you have the game here."

"Yeah no thanks to Swarek."

"Honestly brother, you deserved it. Anyone who goes to Sam for relationship advice deserves whatever he gets."

"Don't go acting like you're some sort of expert just because Nash is all dazed and confused and doesn't know how much better than you she can do."

"I didn't say I was an expert either. I'm just stumbling along in the dark like everyone else. What I'm saying is that you should have asked Noelle or something. You want advice on dealing with a woman, ask a woman."

"Yeah, so who do you ask about Nash?"

"Traci's different. If I want to know how to deal with Traci I just ask Traci. She pretty much explains the rules as I go along so I don't screw up too badly."

"So she's like your own personal _Dating for Dummies _guide?"

"Pretty much."

"I'm glad it's going good for you brother, you know after everything."

"Yeah, after everything."

Oliver fell silent for a moment. When he started to talk again there was a different tone in his voice, suddenly a lot more serious and a bit more sober. "Uh, Jerry, there's something I need to talk to you about."

Jerry looked over at him questioningly. "So talk."

Oliver hesitated a moment before clearing his throat and continuing. "Well ah Zoë got a phone call earlier from...well Zoë told me that…She didn't mean to say anything but…"

Jerry laughed, "What's wrong with you? Spit it out."

Oliver decided the best way to do it was to just say it quickly and get it over with. "Zoë got a call from Allison today, and while they were talking she sort of mentioned that you were seeing someone,_ seriously_ seeing someone."

Jerry flinched at the sound of his ex wife's name. No wonder Oliver was having so much trouble telling him. Zoë and Allison. They had been relatively friendly during his marriage or at least polite with each other, but he had no idea that they were still in contact. "They still talk?"

"Not really. I mean I think Allison called around Christmas time last year, but that's about it. Zoë wasn't trying to meddle or anything, it's just that well Allison asked how you were doing, and Zoë was caught off guard by the whole thing and it just slipped."

Jerry sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Suddenly he felt tense. His good mood of just a few moments earlier seemed to have vanished. "Well it's the truth right? She had to know it was going to happen at some point."

Oliver nodded, still visibly uncomfortable. "Right, of course, but the thing is…well the thing is Zoë might have also mentioned that Nash has a kid." He tensed and prepared for the impact that last bit of information was bound to have.

Jerry just stared at him shaking his head. "Damn it Ollie, she mentioned Leo?"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, she wasn't thinking. She's sorry too, the moment she said it she realized…"

"You know what that's going to do to Allie right?"

"Yeah, I know."

"You know how she was about kids. If she knows…Man, I don't need this."

"I know, it's just that Zoë said that she's back, here in town, that's why she called. She wanted to get together with Zoë."

"You've got to be kidding me, Zoë is going out with her?"

"Well no, she wanted to run it by me first. I mean it seemed weird to her. She always got along with Allison and all, but it's not like they were close. Zoë didn't get why she was being all friendly all of a sudden."

"It's because that's Allie's frigging super power. She can somehow sense that somewhere out there I might finally be happy and she has to swoop in and kill it. Man Ollie, I'm happy."

"I know brother I know."

"She's going to try to ruin it."

"Now, don't go getting all worked up over nothing. She might not even call."

Jerry rolled his eyes at Ollie. "What are you new or something? "She'll call. That's the only reason she called Zoë, to do a little recon before she calls me."

"Then when she calls you'll deal with it."

"Man Ollie, I was so happy."

"I know." Oliver tried hard to ignore the fact that Jerry had just used the past tense.

* * *

><p>Jerry entered his apartment and slammed the door behind him. For once he was glad that Traci was staying at her own place. He didn't think he could be around anyone else right now.<p>

He went into the kitchen, opened the cabinet and reached for the first bottle he saw before he changed his mind, figuring that this seemed like the perfect occasion for the really good stuff, and reached in deeper and pulled out a bottle of scotch. He grabbed a glass and poured himself a generous portion. He took a long drink before putting the glass down on the counter. He needed it to help him with what he was about to do.

He walked back out towards the front of the apartment to the hall closet and opened it. He reached up and dug around back in the corner until he felt it and pulled down the shoebox sized plastic container that he kept hidden there. The box that contained the only mementos of his marriage that he had held on to.

He didn't keep the box there to hide it from Traci, it wasn't her style to snoop through his things. He hid the box from himself. He didn't like the idea of having easy access to it. It worked better for him it required a certain amount of effort on his part to indulge in a little sentimentality regarding his marriage. It served as a deterrent. But tonight he was willing to make the effort.

With the box tucked under his arm he went back into the kitchen for his glass, grabbing the bottle too as an afterthought, just in case some extra liquid courage was needed. He headed into the living room and set himself up on the sofa.

For a moment he thought back to the last time he had done this. Six or so months ago, the night that Traci had left him at the Penny after basically telling him she was going to try to work things out with Dex. That night he had taken the box down to keep him company as he threw himself a little pity party. He figured that Allison's would enjoy hanging around in spirit while he mourned being rejected again. Tonight was different though. Tonight he was breaking out the box to remind himself that the woman who divorced him wasn't the same person as the woman who married him. He needed to remember some of the good moments, the happy times in order to counter the sick feeling that had been threatening to overwhelm him since the moment Ollie had told him she was back in town.

He pulled of the top of the box and reached for the photo on top. It was he only picture he had from their wedding. Allison had kept all the photos after the divorce. He had no idea whether she saved them or burned them, and didn't know if he cared one way or the other.

This photo was enough for him. It was shot in profile, while they danced. They were looking directly at each other, like there was no one else in the room, and they were smiling at each other. It was a happy picture, and he could remember how happy he felt in that moment when it was taken. So happy and full of hope.

She really did look beautiful. Her light brown hair swept up in the front and left to cascade past her shoulders in the back. Allison was always a pretty woman, but when she smiled she was stunning. She didn't really smile much those last few years together. He had almost forgotten how beautiful her smile was.

He put the photo back and started to look through the box again. There wasn't much in it. He hadn't saved much. But there was one thing in there that he suddenly wanted to see. He pulled out an envelope. He hadn't looked at it's contents in years, and wasn't sure he was ready to do it now. He turned the envelope around a few times undecided. Finally he opened it and pulled out the black and white image inside and stared at it. It was a sonogram, taken at sixteen weeks during Allison's second pregnancy. Two weeks before she miscarried.

Jerry poured himself another glass of scotch with his free hand never taking his eyes off the photo. He took another long drink as he looked down at the date on the sonogram, if things had of been different for them their child would have been about…the realization hit him and forced a laugh from him. How had he not noticed that before? Their child would have been about Leo's age. Some therapist out there would have a field day with that one.

He and Allison had tried for years to have a child. It just wasn't in the cards for them. Allison had had four miscarriages in three years, before he gave up and refused to try again. He hadn't wanted to try after again after the second miscarriage, it was so hard on her, but she had insisted, she wanted a baby. He had wanted kids too, he loved kids, but he never tried to put pressure on Allison about it. He would have been perfectly happy adopting, he didn't need a child to be biologically his to love it. But Allison was obsessed with getting pregnant, carrying a child. When she couldn't, she became obsessed with the idea that he somehow blamed her for not being able to carry a baby to term. She decided that he found her to be lacking. She obsessed over it until her insecurities made her so defensive that she did a 180 and went on the attack. Suddenly he was the one who was lacking. Nothing he did was right, he could never please her, and he tried. Oh how he tried.

Towards the end things were just so bad between them. He still couldn't figure out how it had gotten so bad. Trying to please her drained him, she sucked the life right out of him, but he kept trying, probably would still be trying if she hadn't of decided that she didn't want him anymore.

He gave her the house. The house that now stood empty for months on end except when she rented it out, since she was never in town. He pretty much gave her everything she asked for. And now she was back in town, and she would call him and want to see him, because he was happy, and she couldn't allow that. And he already knew that he would go see her when she asked, and he would let her make him feel bad for being happy, because the moment Ollie had told him that Allison knew about Traci and Leo the guilt had begun to set in.

She could always make him feel bad, and guilty like everything he was doing was wrong. The attraction between them was gone, and the love had died, but the guilt and the regrets lived on. He was over his wife, that much he was pretty sure of, he just wasn't sure he was over his marriage yet.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam Swarek was hung over. Traci knew this because she had been sitting in the Parade Room with him, long after everyone else had cleared out, watching for the past two minutes and twenty-seven seconds as he struggled hopelessly with the childproof cap on a bottle of aspirin. It had actually been a little longer since she didn't start timing him until she realized that her partner for the day was having difficulty with what should have been a relatively simple task.

It seemed as though the problem was that he just didn't currently possess the manual dexterity necessary to squeeze the sides in, push down and twist all at the same time. She had watched as he repeatedly squeezed the sides and twisted, pushed down and twisted, twisted, pushed down and squeezed the sides, and tried to just pry it open with his teeth. It was actually pretty funny, which was why she hadn't yet offered to assist him.

Finally after another eleven seconds he gave up and looked up at her in annoyance holding the bottle out to her. "A little help here."

Traci feigned confusion. "Oh, are you having trouble? You want me to get that for you?" She said as she took it from him.

"Don't be cute Nash."

"Can't help it I was born this way." She easily opened it and handed the bottle back to him.

"Just as funny as your little girlfriend," Sam said snidely.

"You mean Andy?"

"Nah, Jerry." Sam laughed at his own joke then groaned at the shot of pain his laughter caused.

Traci grinned. She loved the day after poker night, men were such whinny babies. "So I'm guessing last night's game didn't work for you huh?" She teased watching as he popped two pills swallowing them down without any water.

"Are you _trying _to piss me off?" Sam grumbled.

Traci continued on as though unaware of his souring mood. "Lost some money?"

Sam looked at her through narrowed eyes. "You've been here what, a little over a year yet right? You really think you've earned the clout to mess with me?"

Traci grinned. "You planning to be ready to leave anytime soon?" She asked. "I think when Best said we were on patrol today he meant patrolling stuff outside of this room."

Sam sneered at her and started to put his head down on the table when he noticed Jerry coming to the doorway looking annoyingly unaffected by the previous nights activities. Bastard.

Jerry nodded in greeting to Sam before addressing Traci. "Officer Nash, do you have a minute?"

Sam looked up, his mood suddenly improving somewhat. "Nope, sorry detective she doesn't."

Traci rolled her eyes and shrugged helplessly.

Jerry tried again. "I just need a second."

"I'm sure that's all you need," Sam said snidely. "But she's busy right now, swamped actually." He shrugged in mock apology. "What you gonna do? Nash, like I said we need to get that paperwork done."

Traci looked at him questioningly. "What paperwork?"

"The paperwork I forgot to tell you about from the other day," Sam countered.

"That doesn't even make any sense," Traci muttered.

It was a stand off. Sam smirked at Jerry waiting to see if he would make another attempt.

Jerry narrowed his eyes. "You're an ass Sammy."

"I'm sorry Detective, I didn't quite catch that. So is it anything _I_ can help you with?"

Jerry conceded, he knew when he was beat. "Not in my worst nightmares Sammy."

"Didn't think so. See ya." Sammy added with a little wave.

Jerry ignored him and turned to Traci. "I'll catch you later on."

Sam looked from Jerry to Traci and back. "Wait a minute, I'm sensing something here. Detective, were you hoping to fraternize with Officer Nash here? I hope not because I'm pretty sure the department frowns on fraternization."

"Really? Then they should have closed this love shack of a division down a long time ago," Jerry said sarcastically. "Don't think I won't get you back Swarek," he added.

Match point and the win goes to Swarek. "I welcome the attempt Barber. Buh-bye now."

Traci smiled and waved slightly before Jerry turned and walked away.

When she knew he was out of earshot she turned back to Swarek and asked. "Did you enjoy that?"

"Actually I kind of did payback is a bitch."

So that's how it went. She figured Jerry was probably last night's big winner. "Who are you paying back?"

"Him, you, both of you, the universe, all the same to me right now," Sam groaned.

"You're a mean drunk."

"Not drunk, recuperating. And not mean, just full of boyish charm."

"You have no boyish charm."

"Sure I do, wanna see the dimples, the dimples sell it. Come on you didn't really want to go _talk_ to him anyway. You'd much rather sit here and listen to me bitch and moan about my headache."

"Oh joy."

"Getting a little feisty there Rookie? There's nothing I hate more than a feisty Rookie."

Unless her name is McNally Traci thought to herself but decided it was wise to not repeat it out loud. She watched as he popped two additional painkillers before forcing himself to stand up.

"Come on, let's get this day over and done with," He said as they headed out. "I don't care what the hell comes in over that radio, until further notice we're not responding to anything less than a triple homicide; in a church; if a nun is the possible perp."

Traci laughed. "Such the devoted public servant. Nice to see my tax dollars at work. So I guess this means I'm driving?"

"You got it, cookie."

"You know, I've been working on this theory. You see I'm noticing a pattern. It seems every time you drink a lot, the next day your head hurts. I'm starting to think that the two may be related."

"Seriously feisty today, enough already. And why are you making me talk? Talking hurts. I don't like you as much as I used to Nash."

"I can live with that."

"You know, if you guys offer to take me to the game next week I'll probably let you go hang out in an interrogation room with your boyfriend. Maybe a closet even."

"See now your trying to hook me up like that is kind of creepy."

"You date Barber, I thought you were into creepy. I'll never understand what you see in the guy anyway."

"He has his charms," Nash said suggestively.

Sam gagged. "Oh god, don't say it like that, that's just disgusting. Ugh oh yeah, there it is, I can feel it, I'm going to vomit. Thanks a lot Nash."

"Don't mention it."

* * *

><p>Jerry sat at the bar half listening to Oliver grousing about riding with Epstein all day.<p>

"Seriously man, it's like every time I start thinking I might have made an actual cop out of the kid he goes all Rainman on me 'I'm a very good driver.' I thought I was going to die." Oliver took a long gulp of his drink and looked over at Jerry. "So you look like you're doing all right. The mood you were in last night I figured you were going to go straight home and tie one on."

"I did." Jerry confirmed. Throwing back his shot. "Killed the rest of the good scotch."

"Doesn't look it. You seem like you've relaxed a bit."

"I'm good. Woke up with a whole new perspective on it. You just caught me off guard last night."

"Good, good. I mean Zoë said Allison sounded okay on the phone, pretty normal I mean."

Jerry shrugged. "Whatever, she's either good or she isn't right? It's not my problem anymore. Anyway, she hasn't even called me. Might not. So no point in worrying about. I have other things on my mind."

Oliver nodded, "Good." He looked up behind Jerry as he spotted Traci approaching them. "Speaking of which," he said alerting Jerry to her presence.

Jerry turned with a smile. "_Officer Nash_," he drawled by way of greeting. "I was just thinking about you."

"_Detective Barber_," she said in return flashing him a smile. She looked past him and added, "Hey Oliver."

"Hey Oliver? What? I don't get an all sexed up _Officer Shaw_, greeting," Oliver asked as he got up offering her his seat.

"Maybe next time," Traci said as she sat down.

"I can dream right." Oliver grabbed his coat from off of the back of the seat. "Well I'm going to call it a night and leave you two lovebirds alone. I promised Zoe I'd try to make it home early tonight."

Traci looked at him skeptically. "Early? You know it's after midnight right?"

"Rookies. Early is relative for a cop and a cop's wife. Haven't I taught you anything?" Oliver saluted them and headed out.

"So," Jerry said moving in closer to her. "I've missed you. Sammy give you grief all day?"

Traci laughed. "If you call listening to him alternate between snoring and complaining that the radio is on too loud and that dispatch is just making up calls to annoy him grief. Mostly he just slept it off in the car between calls."

"Ah Toronto's finest. Makes you proud to be a copper. Such a lightweight, he had all morning to sleep it off before shift. You didn't see me looking like shit on a stick all day."

"Well I didn't see you all day, though seriously, how come you never seem as bad off as Swarek and Shaw after game night?"

Jerry flashed her a grin. "Ancient Barber secret. I'd tell you…"

"But then you'd have to kill me. Yeah, yeah, yeah." Traci finished for him.

Traci looked over as Luke came up to the bar next to Jerry and called out to the bartender. "Can I get another beer over here?"

"Well if it isn't Homicide Luke." Jerry said turning around to greet his friend. "How's it going brother? Didn't see you around much today."

Luke nodded in greeting. "Hey Jerry, Nash."

"Hey," Traci replied coolly.

"Yeah, I was in court all day, then I had to review some case flies."

Jerry gave him the once over eyeing him with a mixture of amusement and concern. "Did you ah go home and change or something?"

"No, why."

Jerry raised his eyebrows. "Nothing man, it's just... Well hey, I respect your willingness to put yourself out there and take risks with your wardrobe choices. Don't think I could embrace the whole plaid shirt and stripped tie look but hey what do I know, you have to do you." Luke looked down at his shirt and tie and then back up at Jerry. Traci attempted to contain a giggle.

"Well, nice to see you two still going strong. Enjoy it while it lasts." He quickly paid the bartender picked up his beer and walked away.

"Great chatting with you man," Jerry called out. "Keep the faith." He looked back at Traci and shook his head. "Wow, that was…wow. There goes a cautionary tale if I ever saw one."

Traci rolled her eyes. "That's _your_ friend."

"Friend, colleague, whipping boy, all the same. But man lately he looks like _crap_. McNally did quite a number on him."

"She didn't do it, he did a number on himself. Not feeling sorry for him."

"Hmm, I guess he's learning the hard way that sex with the ex isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Traci laughed. "I guess I should be glad your ex is in Halifax."

Jerry grabbed her hand and tugged. She looked up at him in surprise. His tone suddenly serious he said to her firmly. "Even if she wasn't that's not something you ever have to worry about, you know that right?"

Traci looked at him a little confused by Jerry's sudden change of mood and the turn the conversation had taken. "I was just joking Jerry."

"But you know that I wouldn't do what Luke did right? There is no unfinished business like that between me and my ex."

Traci laughed nervously. "Okay, I trust you. I was joking. Why so serious?"

Realizing how he was coming across Jerry mentally cursed himself. He hadn't planned to bring the mood down. He had been looking forward to spending quality time with Traci all day. He figured he needed to connect with her and ground himself after last night's fiasco.

When he had woken up that morning he had immediately regretted allowing the news of Allison's return to set him off like that. It was an overreaction, a result of being caught completely off guard by Oliver's dropping the news on him. In the clearer light of day he realized that he had no real reason to just assume that Alli was necessarily in a bad way, or that she was fixating on causing him some sort of trouble. For all he knew she could be having a good spell, or she might even be taking care of herself. Stabilized and in treatment. It would have explained why she called Zoë. She could just be trying to reconnect, get her life in order. The bottom line was that he had no idea of where her head was at, and it was crazy to let himself get all wound up for no reason. It was even crazier to let it affect what he had with Traci.

Now he was getting uncharacteristically intense with her and freaking her out.

He played it off. "I know how hurt McNally still is over the whole Luke/Jo thing. I just want to make sure you know that won't happen to us."

Traci smiled at him and raised her hand to lightly touch his cheek. "I trust you."

"Good. So, ah Leo's with the Dark Lord until tomorrow right? What do you say we get out of here? I know you're dying to show me how much you miss me."

"Am I really?"

"Oh yeah, I see you undressing me with your eyes." Jerry teased. "So desperate to get in my pants. I'm embarrassed for you. Figure I'll just take you home and put you out of your misery."

"Quite the Good Samaritan there aren't you Barber, always looking to help those in need."

Jerry shrugged. "What can I say, I'm a giver."

* * *

><p>Jerry woke up to the sound of his phone ringing on the nightstand, again. Instinctively he reached out with his free arm, grabbed it and shut it off and put it back down. All without opening his eyes. He should have done that when it first started going off. There was no way he was ready to let the outside world intrude yet.<p>

He was lying on his back with Traci sprawled across him her face buried in the pillow at his neck, one arm thrown across his chest, one leg pressed in between both of his. The sheets were awkwardly twisted around them. He vaguely recalled that they had been in basically the exact same position when they had passed out in the early hours of the morning.

Last night he couldn't get enough of her. They had barely made it into the front door before he was on her. In fact, he recalled that he had started by pressing her up against the front door as soon as it closed behind them. Traci had been startled at first when they stepped into the apartment and he shrugged of his coat letting it drop to the floor and immediately grabbed her from behind pulling her to him as he backed up against the door. He buried his face into the side of her neck sucking, licking and kissing her while his hands deftly undid the buttons of her coat and tugged at it until he pulled it down. With her back pressed up against him Jerry reached forward sliding his hands up her body and caressing her through her clothing. One hand came up turning her head so he could kiss her mouth while his other arm wrapped around her waist pulling her tightly up against him. Traci melted into him.

"I need you." He had whispered against her lips, before turning her around so that they were facing each and shifting so that he had her pinned against the door. He had been so hot for her, and he had felt consumed with the need to make her just as hot for him. He held her face in both hands as he kissed her, his tongue caressing hers, pulling back to lick at her lips, sucking her lower lip gently between his teeth and then doing it all again.

He bent his knees slightly so he could grab her leg holding it beneath her thigh and slid it up his side hooking it around his waist as he came back up grinding his hips into her. Traci arched her body up against him as her arms reaching to pull him closer. She tugged at the back of his suit jacket trying to get it off. He released her leg for a moment to help her get it off and then gripped her thigh again pressing himself into her and rocking against her rhythmically.

In spite of his urgency and his desire he was coherent enough to figure out that between her tight fitting jeans and her boots getting her undressed enough for sex against the door was going to be a logistical nightmare. He groaned against her neck in frustration. "Damn it! Dresses Traci. Wear more dresses, or skirts."

She laughed hoarsely, sharing his frustration. "Next time." Alternating between kissing and tugging off each other's clothing they had made their way to the bedroom.

Sex with Traci was always good. From the very beginning of their relationship he had considered himself extremely lucky to find someone with whom he was so sexually compatible. She had complimented him in technique and appetite. Their lovemaking varied. Sometimes it was slow and sensuous, other times playful and energetic or steamy and passionate, usually it was some sort of combination. But last night had been different. Last night it had been rawer, more intense, more physical and more emotional that it had ever been. Last night might very well have been the best damn sex of his life.

He had been relentless, even for him. He couldn't get enough of her. It was like she was in his blood, rushing through his body. Everything she gave only made him want more. When she moaned with pleasure it drove him to push her until she groaned, and then she screamed. When she panted he teased her body until she was gasping, breathless and begging for his touch. He held back his own climax so he could push her over the edge again and again. He was on top of her, and then under her, and then sitting up with her straddling him as he thrust wildly up into her, his fingers roughly digging into her hips as he lifted her and pulled her down to met him. In some part of his mind he had worried that he was going too hard, that in his fervor he might hurt her, but Traci met him thrust for thrust keeping up with his pace even pushing him to go harder, faster, deeper into her. Then she had turned the tables on him teasing him, tempting him, pleasuring him until his carefully held control was a joke.

Even now, as spent as he was, he felt himself harden at the memory of Traci's sweat slicked body under him, head thrown back, legs wrapped tightly around his waist digging her nails into his back and shaking with the intensity of her own orgasm her muscles tensed and squeezed around him as he buried himself inside her cried out her name and exploded shuddering violently.

He tried to shake the memory out of his head, but it was too late. He wanted her again. It was crazy. If he stayed in this bed any longer there was no way he was going to be able to resist waking her up to go another a round, and she needed a break. Hell he needed a break. As gently as he could he untangled himself from both Traci and the sheets careful not to wake her and eased out of bed. He grabbed a pair of pajama pants from off the chair and pulled them on. Then reached for his phone and made his way to the kitchen noticing in amusement the trail of clothing that led all the way to the front of the apartment.

He decided that he was going to surprise Traci with some breakfast in bed. He'd spoil her a little, help her refuel, and if once she got her energy back if she decided to reward him with another go around well then who was he to say no?

He prepared to make coffee. When she had found out how much it cost Traci had mocked his four hundred dollar cappuccino machine, but that was because before he had shown her the light she had been a heathen who thought that Starbucks was the apex of good coffee. He had shown her the error of her ways, and she now understood or at least appreciated the results of his investment.

He reached into the cabinet and pulled out a tupperware container of ground coffee and loaded the machine. Normally he would have ground the beans himself right before he needed them, to ensure maximum flavor, but the other morning Leo had discovered the coffee grinder and decided it was cool so Jerry had let him happily grind his way through half a bag of Costa Rican before he got bored and moved on to other amusements.

After he finished setting up the coffee to brew, he powered his phone back on so that he could check his messages while he worked on preparing the rest of breakfast. Two messages from Watson updating him on a new lead in case involving a series of carjackings they were investigating. A message from Boyd that he immediately skipped on principle. He had a strict no Boyd before coffee policy. A call from Ollie whining about wanting to go to the game on Thursday. A call from Swarek, whining about wanting to go to the game on Thursday. God he loved holding those tickets over them. Best purchase he ever made. Made his lady happy, her son happy and made Swarek and Ollie his bitches when they wanted to go. Life was _sweet_.

He looked up as Traci walked into the kitchen smiling at him sleepily her hair tousled and falling sexily around her face wearing only his unbuttoned dress shirt, which she must have picked up, off the floor, and of course, _his_ slippers. He was mesmerized by the way teasing flashes of her flesh were revealed through the open front of the shirt as she moved.

"That's a very good look for you," he said.

"Thank you."

He switched the phone to his other ear as she came up behind him wrapping her arms around his waist to hug him before sliding her hands up to his chest. She went up on her tiptoes as he leaned into her enjoying the feeling of her bare breasts pressing against his back.

"Good morning," He said softly as he turned his face towards her.

"Good morning." She whispered in his right ear seductively, "I don't know what got into you last night, but whatever it was I liked it, a lot."

At the same moment in his left ear he heard, "Jerry, its Alli. I need to see you. Call me back."

_Shit._


	5. Chapter 5

_Shit, shit, shit._

Jerry had to hand it to his ex-wife, the woman had militarily precise timing when it came to screwing with his life. It was some sort of twisted gift. He took the phone away from his ear, turned it off and placed it down on the counter not sure if the shiver that had just run up his spin had been caused by Traci playfully nibbling on his earlobe, or the sound of Alli's voice. It was Alli's voice, that hadn't been a shiver of pleasure, more like dread.

He reminded himself to breathe, and inhaled. God Traci smelled good, like summer, and beaches. He loved the way she smelled. He let himself enjoy feeling her pressing up against his back. Was it just a few minutes ago that he had been standing in this same spot utterly content with his lot in life? He wanted to stay just like this, to get that feeling back, but he knew that was impossible.

For at least the hundredth time since Oliver had first dropped the news on him Jerry found himself wishing that he had simply told Traci months ago about everything that had gone down between him and Alli. If he had of taken the time to explain his marriage, Alli's problems, the role he played in exacerbating them and the hell their life had become as a result, then maybe Traci would have understood why some part of him felt he owed his ex. At the very least Traci wouldn't wonder why even after all this time Alli could call and he'd feel compelled to respond.

The truth was telling Traci that his wife had called and that he was going to see her wasn't really the problem. Traci wasn't the jealous type. As long as he was open and honest with her he doubted that she would have any real issue with it. The problem was that being open and honest meant talking about his marriage, and that was something he didn't want to do with anyone, especially not his girlfriend. He knew that he was being irrational about the whole thing, but he couldn't help how he felt. What he and Traci had was so right, so good he didn't want to bring his past into it.

He closed his eyes and swallowed. "You know I love you right?" he asked her.

She hugged him from behind placing a kiss on his shoulder. "I know, you're pretty cool with me too."

He had avoided telling her anything for so long already, did he really have to bare his soul now? He toyed with the idea of just not saying anything, just finding out what was going on with Alli and dealing with it behind Traci's back, but as soon as the words behind her back popped into his head he paused. He wasn't really up to that. Besides, he was never any good at hiding things from Traci, and she wasn't stupid. She would know something was up just as soon as he started acting a little off. Then when the truth came out, and in these types of situations the truth always came out, the fallout would be way worse than anything that would come of just telling her right now. He didn't want that, to lose her trust.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the feeling of Traci's hands slowly sliding down from their previous position her fingers brushing across his ribs, over his abdomen coming to rest for a moment at the waistband of his pajama pants. Oh damn. Life was really so frigging unfair. Shit, shit, shit.

For a few seconds it was close. His body was doing a damn good job of convincing his head that it wouldn't be a big deal if he waited until later, after they had sex again, before he mentioned Alli. It wasn't simply an issue of physical pleasure, it was also a need to just be that close to her again. Last night there had been no Alli and her issues, it was just him and Trace, and it had been perfect. A part of him wanted to recapture that feeling and hold on to it for as long as possible. The problem was that he couldn't exactly picture himself on top of Traci saying, "Wow babe that was great, I love you, oh by the way been meaning to tell you, my ex-wife is in town and I'm going to go see her."

He caught Traci's hands in his before they dipped below the waistband. "Hey, keep your hands to yourself. I'm making breakfast here." He forced himself to say lightly so that she wouldn't think anything was wrong. Though how she couldn't think anything was wrong was beyond him, he couldn't remember ever turning down a blatant invitation for sex from her.

He turned around so that they were facing each other and encircled her in his arms. She smiled at him. He released an arm from around her waist so that he could bring his hand up to touch her face he lightly brushed his thumb across her lower lip before pulling her closer to him into a kiss. A kiss that was meant to be brief, but quickly threatened to lead to more.

Reluctantly he broke off the kiss before it went any further and began buttoning up the front of the shirt she was wearing. If she kept flashing him every time she moved there was no way he was going to tell her about Allison. "I could swear that barely a week ago Leo and I gave you a robe, and slippers."

She grinned at him. "You did. But I like wearing your shirt better."

"Hmm, I like you in it. But like I said I was just getting us some breakfast. You want to steam the milk for your latte?"

Traci looked at him in mock shock. "Whoa, first you let me drive Stella and now I get to touch your precious cappuccino machine? Before you know it you'll be letting me pick out your clothes," she added as she went to get the milk from the refrigerator.

"Now that's just crazy talk," He said with a laugh as he pulled two bowls out of the cabinet. He liked the rhythm of their banter. They were in such a good place right now. He didn't want anything to mess it up.

Traci looked over as she steamed the milk and asked, "So what's for breakfast?"

"Well I thought you might like some homemade waffles with berries and freshly squeezed juice," Jerry began.

"But then you realized how much work it would take and figured coffee, yogurt, granola and Tropicana would do the trick?" Traci added with a laugh as she watched him open the refrigerator and halfway disappear behind the stainless steel door.

Jerry reappeared holding the orange juice container and the tub of yogurt in hands. "It's like you live in my head," he said.

Traci shook her head as she reached into a cabinet to pull out the Tupperware container of granola. Jerry's kitchen was frighteningly well organized, it was almost scary. At some point she might have to acknowledge the fact that she was in love with some sort of Tupperware buying, container labeling psychopath. "I keep telling you, Pop tarts and Eggos are all it takes to make me happy."

Jerry grimaced. "And I keep telling you that there is a world of food out there that doesn't come from a box."

Traci grinned at him "You lie."

Jerry set up their breakfast items on he kitchen's center island and pulled up a barstool as Traci brought their coffees over and took the seat opposite from him. "Here you go, one double double with sweetener."

"Thank you," He said gladly accepting the proffered cup. "See I told you, if this whole cop thing doesn't work out you can have a bright future as a barista."

They ate for a while in a comfortable silence as Jerry searched for a way to begin. "Trace. I need to tell you something."

Traci looked up at him expectantly. "What's up?"

Jerry cleared his throat. "I…I got a message from my ex-wife. She's in town and needs to see me."

Traci's surprise showed on her face, but she recovered quickly and fixed her expression into a questioning look. "How long has it been since you heard from her?"

It hadn't occurred to him that she might think that he had been in some sort of contact with Alli all along. That was the last thing he wanted her to think. "A while. I haven't spoken to her since, well since the divorce. Her lawyer, him I talked to all the time, we got really close though, what with me contributing so much to his kids college fund and all."

They sat there for a moment, each unsure of what to say next. Traci broke the silence. "So are you going to see her?"

Jerry looked down, "I guess. I just got the message right before you came out for breakfast. I haven't called her back yet."

"But you're going to call her back, even though it's been forever?" Traci suddenly felt filled with a strange sense of foreboding. Jerry had never really talked about his ex-wife, but she had always gotten the feeling that the divorce had been pretty unpleasant. She certainly couldn't have imagined that there was enough goodwill between them that Jerry would jump to go see her the second she got back into town. Especially not after almost two years of no communication between them. "What does she want?"

"I have no idea, I didn't even know she was back in town until...until she called." It didn't seem like the best idea to mention that he had known for a couple of days now that Alli was in town. Traci would wonder why he hadn't told her until that moment.

Traci looked at him strangely before picking up her plate and coffee mug and heading to the sink. "So she just called you out of the blue?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"No warning?" She asked, as she rinsed her dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher.

"I just told you she left me a message this morning," Jerry answered a little more harshly than he intended. He started again in a softer tone. "I haven't heard from her in so long, it was totally unexpected."

Jerry saw the suspicion in her eyes and immediately regretted covering up the fact that Oliver had warned him of Allison's presence in town. Stupid move. Unfortunately he had covered it up, he was already committed to his story and it would be worse to try to backtrack now.

Traci knew he wasn't telling her the whole truth, she didn't know how, but her gut told her something was off with him. More importantly she could tell that Jerry suspected that she could tell he was covering something and he wasn't going to do anything about it.

She came back to the counter and looked down indicating his dishes. "Are you done?" She asked simply.

Jerry nodded and watched as she picked up his dishes and went to repeat the process. As she finished loading the dishwasher he slid down from his barstool and came up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her noticing her body tense up for a second before she allowed herself to relax into him.

He buried his face into her hair. Mangos, that summer smell was mangos, like the shampoo she kept in his bathroom. "I love you Traci," he whispered into her hair.

"I know."

"No, I mean I _really _love you." He needed for her to understand that

"I love you too. Jerry." Traci stood there for a moment unsure of what to do next. There didn't really seem to be anything left for her to say. Finally she made the easiest choice. "I'm going to hop in the shower, I should get going soon," She eased herself out of his embraced and turned to walk away.

Jerry watched her walk out of the kitchen, before he got up out of the counter and walked into the hall. He heard her go into the bathroom and turn on the shower. He started picking up the items of clothing that they had carelessly discarded the night before in their urgency. It had been a wild night, he remembered with a smile. As he passed the bathroom he could have sworn he heard the door lock.

He couldn't help but think how just mentioning Alli had already changed something between them.

* * *

><p>Traci pulled into the Division parking lot looking for a spot. She noticed Stella parked in her usual spot and her hands tightened on the steering wheel. Feeling like a coward she immediately pointed her car towards a spot as far away from the red Mustang as possible. This did not go unnoticed.<p>

"So then what did he say?" Andy asked choosing to not complain about the fact that they were going to now have to cross the entire length of the parking lot to get to the station. Who was she to bring up the fact that Traci didn't want to park near her boyfriend whom she claimed not to be mad at.

Traci turned off the engine and leaned back in her seat. "He told me he loved me. It was weird. I don't know what it was but the whole vibe changed. I showered and got ready for work and came to meet you." She still wasn't exactly sure how the morning had turned out that way.

"Which you didn't have to do," Andy reminded her. "I mean I had your car, you had to take a damn taxi home. I thought you were driving in to work with Jerry."

Traci waved her off, "I know, I know, I was. But then I just needed to get out of there I guess. It was just so off. I don't know how to explain it. One second we were enjoying breakfast. And then he told me that she had called and it just seemed different. He seemed different. Like he was there but he wasn't. I don't know." She decided against mentioning the fact that she strongly suspected he had been lying about something, or at the very least not telling the whole truth. That was the part that had gotten to her.

Andy asked the question she had wanted to ask since they had started the conversation. "Are you sure it wasn't you who got different? Maybe it weirded you out hearing him talk about his ex-wife." Traci was usually so calm about things when it came to her and Jerry, but when her friend walked into the apartment, completely unexpected, three hours ago she wasn't herself. It wasn't until they had gotten into the car for the drive to work that she even began to explain any of what had happened.

Traci thought for a moment. "I don't think so. I mean okay, it was a little weird, but it's not like he said anything bad. I don't know."

"So you don't think he's going to…" Andy had to ask, it wasn't like cheating hadn't been in the air around here lately.

Traci shook her head, "No, I mean I don't think so, I wasn't even thinking that way. It's just that…" How exactly could she explain what was bothering her when it had never bothered her before today. "Well I was standing there, and it just hit me out of nowhere, I don't know anything about them, their marriage. Nothing really. I know he was married for eight years, his divorce was final almost six months before we met and she used to take care of things for him, keep him organized. I swear that's all he's ever really said about her."

Andy hid her surprise. She had always assumed that Traci had known all about Jerry's ex and had just never mentioned it. It seemed like Traci and Jerry talked about everything. "That didn't seem weird to you?"

Traci shrugged "I guess I didn't really think about it. It's not like she was around or anything. They've never even talked once the whole time I've known Jerry. I can't believe I never thought about it. I guess on some level it was like she just wasn't a factor."

"And now she is?" Andy asked.

Traci thought for a moment before answering. "That's just it, I don't know. How am I supposed to feel about her if I don't even know how he feels about her? He's never talked about her, even this morning he didn't really say much. He knows all about me and Dex."

Andy gave a short laugh, "Well he lived through the last chapter of you and Dex even had a featured role in your break-up."

"That's what I mean, he knows where I stand with Dex, I don't know anything about him and Allison. How long they dated, how in love they were, I don't even know why it ended or who left whom. He told me once, things didn't work out. What the hell does that even mean?"

Andy shrugged. What the hell did that mean? She waited patiently for Traci to continue since nothing she had said so far really accounted for the state she was currently in. She could understand if Traci was acting a jealous, or annoyed, or even angry, but none of those emotions really seemed to cover the way Traci was acting.

"Jerry is the real thing for me you know," Traci said quietly. "I had so many crappy relationships with crappy guys in which I kept trying to be what they wanted me to be to keep them. He's the only guy I've been completely myself with, and that's who he wants to be with. I don't have to change for Jerry or make myself small, I can just be. He loves me and supports me and I can rely on him. Dex and I will always be connected because we share a child, but even when we were living together I never felt the kind of connection that I have with Jerry. It's hard to explain. On one hand I feel completely comfortable and natural with him, but at the same time he makes my heart skip a beat and my pulse race. You know. He's like my Big Wow relationship."

"I totally get it," Andy said knowingly. "It's like having your best friend and your wet dream all in one guy. You're crazy about him."

"Yeah, I am," Traci said with a little smile.

"He's crazy about you too Trace, anyone can see that," Andy said not just to reassure her friend, but because she absolutely believed it.

"I know, I know," Traci said. It was true. She did know that Jerry loved her, he said it all the time, and he was constantly showing his love to her in hundreds of little ways. Since they had gotten back together everything between them had grown so much more solid that it had ever been before. And then today, out of nowhere, an idea began to form in her head that she just couldn't shake, and it was starting to make her question everything. She hated feeling the way she was feeling right now, hated these thoughts that were making her act not quite like herself, but they were there, and she had to deal with it.

She turned to Andy and said in a low voice, as though if she said it too loud it would give weight to the words. "But what if I'm just _a_ wow relationship for him. What if _she _was his Big Wow, and now she's back?"


	6. Chapter 6

Jerry stood on the sidewalk staring up at his former house. They had bought it because Allison had loved it so much, she said it had a lot of light. He would have preferred a nice modern condo, they had a lot more light. But this house, with it's good sized yard, four bedrooms and large sized family and living rooms was perfect for the family they had planned for but had never had. Plus the schools around here were excellent. They had sunk a large chunk of change into a future that didn't work out. He didn't know how Allison could stand the house, to him it was just a reminder of everything they didn't get to have.

He thought back to their phone call this morning. Traci had been gone for over thirty minutes before he even thought about returning Alli's call. He had been too busy replaying the morning's events trying to pinpoint exactly where he had screwed up. Telling Traci that he hadn't expected a call from Alli seemed to be a good place to bookmark as the crash point. That had been foolish, and for whatever reason Traci had seen that it wasn't the truth. He figured that he needed to deal with Alli and get it out of the way so he could do damage control with Traci.

He got her number off his cell's caller id and called. She picked up on the third ring.

"Alli, it's Jerry."

"I know. Thanks for calling me back. How are you?"

"I'm good. What's up? What did you want to see me about?" He said quickly, wanting to get straight to the point.

"I'm fine too, thank you for asking," she responded.

"I'm sorry, of course. How are you…I mean, I'm glad to hear you're doing okay. This is just…It's been a long time, I was surprised to hear that you were back."

"I never moved away permanently Jerry. I was just staying with my parents for awhile."

"A very long while."

"I've been back and forth a few times Jerry."

Now that was a surprise. He had always assumed that she was just staying put in Nova Scotia with her family, it hadn't occurred to him that she had been in town.

"So why are you calling now?"

"I need to go over a few things with you, sooner is much better than later. If it's more convenient for you I can come over to your new apartment."

Alli always had a way of seeing things only as they related to her. His place was new to her only because she had never been there. It didn't matter that he had been living here for two years.

He looked around for a moment. A few of Leo's action figures were on the coffee table because he had forgotten to put them away, and the rule was that he had to clean up after himself so they were going to sit there until this weekend when Leo came and had to clean them up. Traci's rain boots were by the door since she could never remember to put them in the closet after they dried. There were signs of them all over the apartment, and that's how he liked it. He wasn't going to put everything away to hide them from Alli. He didn't want to, and he didn't want her here. This place, his home, had nothing to do with the two of them, and he intended to keep it that way.

"No Allison, that's not a good idea. I'll just come by and see you, before I go into work if that's okay."

"That's fine."

"Okay. So where are you staying?"

"At the house, where else would I be?" She said sounding surprised by the question.

"Fine. I'll be there in an hour."

"Thanks Jerry. It's good to hear your voice, I miss you."

Jerry hung up the phone without answering. It was so like Alli to drop something like that on him. He had to admit though, she had sounded almost normal.

Back in the present he ran his fingers through his hair as he tried to steady his nerves. He wasn't exactly sure what he was so nervous about, Alli had sounded normal enough on the phone. He wasn't really expecting any major drama from this meeting. Or at least he was hoping everything went well, with Alli you never could tell. Calm on the phone didn't necessarily mean everything would still be okay and hour later.

He took a deep breath figuring it was better to just get it all over with and walked up to the house and up the front stairs. The door was slightly ajar.

The cop in him wanted to reach for his gun before entering, convinced that something was wrong. People normally didn't just leave their door open like that. The former husband in him was less concerned about the possibility of an intruder than annoyed with the probability that Allie had just neglected to close the door behind her for whatever reason.

He chose a compromise between the two sides and put his hand on his gun ready to draw it in the unlikely event that something more dangerous than Alli herself was lurking in his former home.

"Alli?" He yelled into the house. "It's Jerry, I'm coming in. Is everything okay?"

"Back here Jerry, in the kitchen," she yelled back. The house had great acoustics. Maybe it was a good thing they hadn't filled it with kids, the sound would have been deafening.

His hand fell from his gun. She hadn't even bothered to question how he had gotten in the house. Of course the open door was her doing. He couldn't remember how many nights he spent checking this very door to make sure she had locked it. He closed the door behind him and locked it securely. The days mail was on the floor so he bent over and picked it up, flipping through the letters unconsciously out of habit as he walked through the house.

The front hall was filled with boxes. He couldn't tell if she was moving in or moving out. He had forgotten how the woman seemed to thrive on some sort of organized chaos. If she really was on her meds and stable he would bet a weeks pay that as messy as everything looked there wasn't a single item in here that she couldn't locate in less than two minutes. Actually even off of her meds it was a pretty safe bet. Alli was just like that, she could keep track of everything even in the midst of chaos. He on the other hand had to resort to strict organizing systems just to keep from losing his own head.

He wove his way around the various bags and boxes to the kitchen. The people who had owned the house before them had done a major renovation on the kitchen a few years before selling the house. They had turned it into a kitchen worth of a chef, which he and Alli found wildly amusing when they bought the house since Alli couldn't cook worth a damn and they both lived for takeout.

The kitchen was a real showpiece, or at least it had been Jerry thought as he stepped in and saw it's current condition. He took in the tarps spread out on the floor and the counter and the array of brushed and paints spread out on every flat surface. What he assumed was still the kitchen table was buried under an assortment of sketches and toolboxes.

Alli was standing back from an easel studying the canvas that she was obviously working on. She was painting again, that was a good sign. The last year of their marriage, when things had been at there worse, she hadn't picked up a brush once. She was so intent on whatever it was she was focusing on that she didn't even bother to look up as he walked in.

"Love what you've done with the place," He said in amusement.

"You know this room has the best light in the house, even better than the sun room. Now that I don't have to listen to anyone complain about it I can paint wherever I want." Alli answered without looking away from the easel.

Jerry laughed. "I know, stupid husband not wanting turpentine in his eggs, so unreasonable."

She turned to him slightly and flashed a sympathetic smile before putting her attention back on her canvas. "You couldn't help it darling, you were always difficult to deal with, good thing I was so patient and understanding."

He studied her objectively. She looked good. Healthier than she had the last time he saw her, though still a little too thin, he couldn't really tell since she was a huge oversized shirt to protect her clothes from the paint. She had changed her hair, cut it all off. It suited her, brought out her eyes, made her look somehow more fragile and childlike. She stared at the canvas for a moment longer before frowning and stepping away from it.

"Just can't seem to get it right. Oh well, I'll deal with it later," She smiled and turned to him, wiping her hands on the front of her shirt.

"I made you coffee," she said pointing to the coffee maker on the counter.

Jerry eyed it warily. In the ten years that they had know each other Alli had never once made a decent cup of coffee, not even by accident. It was always either as thick as mud or as flavorful as dishwater. He had seriously considered requesting that she put a promise to never make it again in their wedding vows. "You know," he began making no move to go anywhere near the offending liquid. "We're already divorced, you don't get anything if I die."

Alli laughed. "Fine, don't try it. It probably wasn't any good anyway."

He smiled at her. "It's safe to assume that you can use it to clean your brushes if you run out of turpentine. But the thought was nice. I'll just have water or something. By the way, I brought in your mail," He said placing the pile on one of the few clear spots. "Still using Barber?"

"Can you blame me?"

"Allison Marie Vandenlangenberg is a good name, hell on a credit card, but still a good name. Always thought you should have hyphenated Vandenlangenberg-Barber, it just rolls off the tongue."

"I can't believe you still think that joke is funny,' Alli snickered.

She stared at him for a moment. "Oh hell Jerry. No point acting like strangers," she said as she closed the distance between them and gave him a hug.

Jerry tensed for a moment before returning the hug. It had been a long time since he had held her, it seemed strange to find that even though _she_ felt the same in his arms holding her didn't cause the same feelings. It was strange, but reassuring.

Alli stepped back and looked up at him. "You shaved your mustache and goatee off."

Instinctively his hand went to his face. "Yeah, well I lost a bet to Sam last year."

"And you didn't grow it back?"

"Eh, too much trouble. Anyway I decided I liked it like this." Actually, he thought, I liked Traci's reaction to it.

"I liked the painfully well groomed facial hair," Alli said wistfully.

Jerry laughed. "You used to call it my Cuban gun runner look."

"Yeah, but I liked it. So how is Sammy?"

Jerry shrugged. "He's fine."

"You two are still close I take it," Alli asked looking at him from over her shoulder as she went to the refrigerator to get him a bottle of water.

"Yeah, why wouldn't we be?"

Alli shrugged handing him the bottle. "Does he still think I'm the devil?" she asked matter of factly.

Jerry sighed. Not this again. "He never thought you were the devil Alli."

"He called me hell spawn."

She had one hell of a selective memory. "Well that's more a child of the devil, child of hell reference than the actual devil himself. Anyway if I remember it correctly you were throwing a glass vase at him at the time Alli."

"I was throwing it at you, he just got in the way."

"Yeah, I don't think that technicality really helped when he was getting stitches." Jerry couldn't believe that he had almost forgotten about that particular incident until just right then. Funny how that went, there had been so much drama that Sammy getting whacked with a vase just got thrown into the mix.

It had taken some pretty fast-talking on Jerry's part to convince Sam to not haul Alli in so she could cool her heels in a cell overnight. To his credit, Sam had been more concerned about leaving Jerry alone to deal with Alli than he had been about his own injury, though he would have enjoyed watching her suffer in a cell as payback.

Yeah, memory lane was a path they needed to avoid. "So what have you been up to? How was Halifax? How was it being back home with your family?"

"They were the same as always, I kept myself busy. I guest lectured at a few classes at NSCAD University. Did some graphic design work here and there, freelance stuff, no pressure"

"That's good."

"Philip, you remember Philip right? Well he said my old job at OCAD was available for me next term, if I wanted it. I'm thinking about it.

He remembered Philip, he had been one of her professors when she was in the Masters program at Ontario College of Art and Design and later he had been promoted to some sort of administrative position and hired Allie to teach. He would be asshole enough to hire Allie so she'd have a reason to stick around.

"So, how long have you been back?"

"Actually I got back two months ago."

Jerry looked at her, his surprise evident. "Two months? Wow. And you're just calling now?"

"I had some things to take care of. Why, hurt your feelings?"

"No Alli. It just a little surprised. So why _did_ you call?"

"I'm thinking about selling the house."

Now that was good news. "Okay. What do you need me for?"

"Well the arrangement was that I get to live in the house with an option to buy you out, but if it's ever sold we split the proceeds. I don't want to buy you out, I just want to sell it. Maybe get something smaller if I plan to stay in Toronto."

"I know what the arrangement was, but we could have done this through the lawyers, there really was no need for us to see each other."

Alli looked at him seeming somewhat offended. "Is it so bad to see me?"

"Not bad Alli, just unnecessary. Like I said, the lawyers could have handled this. It's not like you've made any attempt to get in touch before now."

"Neither did you."

"Yeah well when your wife leaves a message on your voicemail saying 'don't try to contact me,' and has her lawyer send you divorce papers it kind of takes away the urge call and say hi," Jerry responded, not even trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

Alli wisely choose to change tactics. "Well maybe I wanted to see you now."

"Why?" Jerry asked warily.

She smiled and stepped closer to him. "I still feel bad about how everything went down between us Jerry, at the end."

"Don't. I'm over it."

She chose to ignore his flip comment. "I should have never just pulled the rug out from under you like that. I shouldn't have just left."

"It was for the best," Jerry said calmly.

"Was it really?"

Jerry's heart skipped. He had often wondered back when she had first left, how it would feel if Alli came back and expressed any sort of desire to work things out. Now he knew. It felt wrong. It just wasn't there anymore, not for him, which was a problem. Alli was never very good at taking no for an answer.

"Yeah it was. I wasn't giving you what you needed. That's obvious, I mean look at you. You look great, you're taking care of yourself, you're stable again. You had to leave to do that, so yes, it was for the best."

"I'm just saying Jerry. We were really good in the beginning."

"We had our moments."

"We had more than moments."

"Look Alli, it was…"

Alli interrupted him, "So help me if you say 'it was what it was' I might slap you."

Jerry couldn't help himself, he almost laughed. "You're right, I'm sorry. We were good for a while Alli, at least I thought so. But then we were awful. Now, I don't know what you're asking me for."

"I don't know either."

"Well I don't know what I can offer you Alli, we've been over for a long time, long before the divorce even. I accepted that, and I moved on, besides, I'm with someone."

Alli snorted. "I heard. A rookie? Seriously Jerry could you be more clichéd? The recently divorced detective hooking-up with someone fresh out of academy."

Well apparently Zoe had run her mouth even more than she had let on. He was going to have a long talk with Oliver about teaching his wife the importance of discretion. Jerry forced himself not to look embarrassed. Sure, even he had thought his relationship with Traci it was a bit clichéd in the beginning, even worse because Traci wasn't even a rookie when they had hooked up, she was a cadet, his student even. But Trace was a far cry from some starry-eyed novice who looked up to him unquestioningly.

"Yes, she's a rookie, but she's not some kid you can just dismiss."

"No? Well I hear she _has_ a kid. Kind of convenient, instant family. How long has this been going on?"

Jerry slowly inhaled. He had allowed himself to be engaged. Not wise, he should have backed away from this subject the second she brought it up. It was time to retreat before the claws actually came out. Going down this path with Alli wasn't a good idea. "You know what? I'm not having this discussion with you. I came by to talk, see what you needed and, to make sure you're okay. I've done that. Now I need to get to work."

"Jerry I was a cop's wife for eight years, I know when afternoon shift starts."

"I'm a detective Alli, I don't just keep regular hours, and I have stuff I need to take care of now."

"Fine, run away. I'll call you."

Please don't. "Okay. We'll talk later. I'm glad to see that you are doing good Alli, I really am. That's all I want for you, I hope you know that."

"You too. You know, once upon a time we were good together."

"That was a long time ago Alli. We were two different people."

"I haven't changed that much."

Now that was a scary thought, Jerry said to himself. "I have. Take care." He kissed her quickly on the cheek and walked back out to the front of the house and let himself out, making sure to at least put on the auto lock before he closed the door behind him.

He supposed he should feel relieved that thing went as smoothly as they did. Alli did seem to be fine more or less, which was a good thing. As long as she was healthy and maintaining he didn't feel as though he owed her anything. He just hoped that she stayed that way.

The unexpected part was her alluding to anything remotely romantic still existing between the two of them. Hopefully that was just a reaction to hearing that he had someone in his life. He had to laugh at the irony. It was typical for Alli to have left him when he would have done anything for her and to come back when he'd do anything to get rid of her.

* * *

><p>"So what did Barber do wrong?" Noelle asked as she came up to where Traci was sitting.<p>

Traci looked up from putting on her boots. "What are you talking about?"

"He's hanging out right outside the locker room trying to seem all nonchalant, but actually looking nervous as hell. I figured he's waiting for you."

Traci sighed. "Oh God, make him go away." She gave Noelle a pleading look. "Can you tell him I'm not in here?"

Noelle shook her head. "Honestly. It never fails to amaze me how you folks seem convinced that I want to play a part in your tangled and confused love lives. I'm not the division den mother. Have my own life. I was just passing along info I thought you might like to have." She tilted her head indicating the locker room exit. "You need to go put on your big girl pants and deal with that yourself. But, unless it's something big, I'd forgive him. Lover boy looks pretty pathetic out there."

Traci watched as Noelle walked down over to her own locker. Put on her big girl pants. Well apparently she had left them home that day, since she had spent the entire shift managing to avoid contact with Jerry. It hadn't been nearly as hard as she had thought it might be. Once she abandoned trying to make it look as though it wasn't deliberate and threw herself fully into dodging Jerry it was relatively easy. She had lucked out and spent most of the day canvassing the neighborhood around the scene of a drive by shooting, thankful that Jerry wasn't the detective in charge. When she had gotten back to the barn it had just been a matter of being willing to blatently turn and walk in the other direction, duck into a room, or grab someone else and engage them in some sort of inane conversation so that she'd appear busy and unavailable whenever Jerry came looking for her.

But now it seemed her luck had run out. He had her cornered, and since it was the end of day even if she just walked past him and kept going he'd probably do something annoying like follow her into the parking lot just to get a few words in. Too bad Andy had already left with Chris and Peckstein telling her that they'd meet her at the Penny. She was out of shields, she was going to have to talk to him.

Jerry stood in front of the bulletin board seemingly engrossed in the notices and postings that he probably already had memorized. She could tell that he knew the second she stepped out of the locker room that it was her because his shoulders tensed up before he turned around.

"Lying in wait for an ambush?" She asked raising a questioning eyebrow.

Jerry smiled at her a little nervously. "Not an ambush. Just figured this was my last chance to talk to you before you left. For some reason I didn't get to speak to you alone all day."

"Funny how that worked out wasn't it?"

"Yeah, go figure. So Leo's home tonight?"

"No, change of plans. Since he'll be with me this weekend and all next week while I have the morning shift Dex asked if he could keep him one more night."

Jerry looked hopeful "So you're free?"

"No," Traci said looking away from him. " I made plans with Andy tonight."

He took a step closer to her and reached out to touch her arm. "Really? I was hoping we'd have a chance to talk."

Traci stepped back away from him. "So talk."

"Not here. I mean really talk, about this morning Trace, about this afternoon. We need to talk."

She sighed. She wasn't ready to talk. "Well, tonight is bad, tonight I have plans."

"Really, you're going to run?" Jerry asked.

Traci looked him square in the eye. "Nobody is running Jerry."

Jerry gave her a skeptical look, "Come on Trace, it's me, I know when you're running."

Traci's patience snapped. Who was she kidding? Not mad it him? Hell yeah she was mad at him, and she really wasn't in the mood for his I know you better than anybody bull. If he knew her that well he would have known that the longer she had to think about this morning the more pissed off she'd get. "Yeah, well you got me, maybe I am running. I guess we know each other pretty well because I sure as hell know when you're not being honest with me, like this morning. So now I have plans, because I don't want to talk, because I'm mad and if I talk to you when I'm mad I'm going to say something I might regret. So I'm doing both of us a favor and leaving now."

Jerry watched as she walked away. Well this day was just getting better and better.


	7. Chapter 7

_Sorry for the delay, hellish week at work, Chapter 8 should go up faster. But enough about me. This chapter gets a wee bit explicit towards the end so be forewarned._

* * *

><p>Andy watched as Traci threw her third dart in a row dead center on the bull's eye. She would not want to be Jerry Barber right now that was for damn sure. She had never seen Traci so ticked off with him. At first she had thought it was just that Traci was feeling insecure about the whole ex-wife situation, but this wasn't insecurity, Traci was royally pissed off.<p>

"And then he accused me of running. Running. Is he out of his mind?"

"Well you did say…" Andy was cut off by a scathing look from Traci. "The nerve of that man, rat bastard, as if you would run from him," she quickly corrected.

"That's what I thought you were saying," Traci commented as she went to the board to retrieve her darts. "Another round?"

Andy laughed. "I don't think so, you've already beat me six times in a row. I think you're kind of motivated tonight."

"I probably am." Traci said as they walked over to their table. She had spent the whole night alternating between wanting avoid Jerry for the foreseeable future and wanting to go over to his place and have it out right then and there.

"Maybe you should go talk to him," Andy said. "Put all your cards on the table and see where his head is. Get some answers."

Traci thought for a moment before confessing. "It isn't just the whole return of the former Mrs. Barber thing. He wasn't telling me the whole truth this morning you know. I could tell, he was lying about something."

So that's what the problem was, Andy thought to herself. " Well then, go kick his ass about lying to you. You've been stressing about this situation all night, you won't feel better until you deal with it."

"You're probably right."

"I'm definitely right," Andy said as she whipped out her cell phone. "Call him. Here, I'll dial. What's the number?"

Traci rolled her eyes and pulled out her own phone. "You're a little too eager to get rid of me. Have I been that big a pain in the ass tonight?"

Andy shrugged and grinned at her. "Maybe a little. Moping isn't your thing. It's mine. Though I have to admit, you do mad as hell pretty well."

Traci laughed and hit the speed dial. "Here goes nothing."

Jerry picked up on the third ring. "Hey," he said softly. "I didn't think you were talking to me."

"I wasn't," Traci answered. "Are you home?"

"Yeah. Where are you?"

"The Penny."

"Figured. Still with McNally?"

"Yes. But we were getting ready to leave. Do you still want to talk?"

Jerry hesitated. "Talk? Uhm talk. I guess, I mean do you want to come over?"

"Yeah," she answered. Something was off in his voice.

"How soon?"

"Now."

"Okay."

Traci closed the phone and turned to Andy.

"Well?"

"Well I'm going over there to talk to him. But he sounded a little weird."

"Thank you god. I couldn't take another second of you moping around. You do it all wrong. I'm so much better at it. It was really unfair of you to try to steal my glory like that. Your man just got a phone message from his ex, mine slept with his ex. This is my moment, don't try to step on it again."

"Shut up." Traci grabbed her bag and her coat and watched as Andy did the same. "You can drop me off and take the car. If I need to come home I'll just call a taxi or something."

"Sounds like a plan. This is a good thing. You and Jerry will talk, work things out and be disgustingly perfect and happy again so I complain about it. I'm discovering that my misery doesn't really like company, I'm a lone wolf." Andy informed her.

"Okay lone wolf, we're out of here."

* * *

><p>Traci let herself in using her keys. The apartment was dark. All of the lights were off except for one low lamp in the living room where Jerry was half sitting, half lying slouched on the sofa still wearing his shirt and pants from this afternoon. His suit jacket was tossed carelessly on the other end of the sofa. He looked up smiling crookedly at her as she walked in but made no move to stand up. As she dropped her coat and bag onto a chair Traci took in the half empty bottle of scotch and the empty glass on the coffee table and the realization sunk in, that's why he sounded off on the phone.<p>

"You've been drinking, you're drunk," she said in an accusatory tone.

Jerry winked. "You'll make a damn good detective one day Officer Nash. You know there's a closet for that stuff." He patted the sofa next to him indicating that she should join him.

Traci stayed where she was looking him over. "I never thought I'd live to see the day, Jerry Barber, piss drunk." She said in a dry tone.

Jerry grinned at her sheepishly. "I'm not piss drunk. Granted, stone cold sober and I parted company a ways back, but I haven't run into to piss drunk yet. Right now I'm hanging out with extremely comfortably buzzed and my friends, the X-Men, Spiderman and Batman," he said pointing to Leo's action figures. "Leo really is a free thinker, he doesn't mind crossing over licensing and character universes in his play. I could have sworn there was a Transformer over here somewhere too."

"All kids play like that. Why are you sitting here alone drinking?" Traci asked as she sat down on the arm of the chair.

Jerry looked disappointed that she didn't take the offered spot next to him. "I'm not alone, I told you the Web slinger, Dark Knight, Wolverine and Jubilee are keeping me company. And maybe I'm drinking because I was feeling guilty because I fudged the truth with my girlfriend."

"You lied to your girlfriend," Traci corrected him. "And that's Rogue," she added.

Jerry picked up the action figure in question and studied it for a moment before putting it back down. "You're right. Well Jubilee is around here too somewhere, at least she was when I opened the scotch, and yes, I did lie, and I'm sorry." He sat up and looked at her suddenly serious.

"I am sorry Traci. Oliver told me two days ago that Allison was in town, after the poker game. I didn't mention it to you because I was hoping she wouldn't call. Then when she actually did call I felt bad that I hadn't given you any sort of warning about it, so I tried to cover it up, which was stupid and unnecessary, and I know I keep saying it, but really I am truly sorry." He hoped that she believed him and understood how much he wanted to make it up to her.

Traci looked at him intently. "Is that's it?" She asked.

"That's it," Jerry said with a shrug. "Kind of stupid, I know. I screwed up. Trace," he added softly. "Come sit with me."

She hesitated for another moment before getting up and going to join him on the sofa. "You did screw up." She sat down still keeping a little space between them. "Don't lie to me Jerry. This thing, you and me, it doesn't work if we aren't honest with each other."

"I know, I should have just told you."

"You don't have to always tell me everything, you can say I'm not ready to talk about it, or I can't get into now or something, but don't lie. I can't trust you if you lie."

"Okay, I know, and I really am sorry Trace. The second I said it I knew I was wrong, I just didn't know how to back down. Can we let it go now?" He held out his hand to her.

Traci looked at it for a moment before accepting it. "No we can't let it go. But I can get over it. If you don't do it again." She let Jerry pull her into his arms. He hugged her and kissed her lightly on the top of her head. Traci reached down and undid the zippers on her ankle boots before kicking them off.

"I hate it when we argue," Jerry said softly as he lay back down bringing Traci along with him so that she was lying on her side resting up against him.

"Then don't screw up," she retorted.

Jerry hugged her tightly. "Sssh. Don't be mad anymore. I'm sorry."

"You said that already," Traci reminded him. She knew he regretted being dishonest with her. She just hoped he didn't make the same mistake again. More importantly she wanted to know what had happened after she had left, if he had called his ex and what the results were. "So, you called her back after I left?" she asked.

"Yeah. Went to see her too."

Traci twisted around and looked up at him surprised. "You already saw her? Is that why you got smashed, because you had some sort of run in with your ex-wife?" She asked cautiously.

Jerry shifted slightly so he could pull her back to him. "My ex-wife and I didn't have a run in, I just went to see her before shift and we talked, she wants to sell the house, maybe, probably. I got smashed because after my shift ended I had a run in with my justifiably pissed off girlfriend."

"That's what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Yeah, that and fudging this morning."

"Lying."

"Yup, wanted to tell you all about it. But you told me to get lost."

"I said I had plans.

He laughed. "That's Traci speak for get lost."

"So tell me about it now."

"I will if you drink with me," he said slyly.

Traci sat up and narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't play games with me Jerry."

He sighed. He needed to get this out while he was still willing to. "I'm not playing games. I don't want to drink alone, my super hero friends haven't taken a single drink, I think they're on duty. Come on, have a drink with me." Jerry poured another glass of scotch and held it out to her.

Traci looked down at the glass and wrinkled her nose. "No thank you."

"What? You can't share a glass with me? Now I have cooties?" He grinned at her. "I hate to be the one to tell you this Trace, but considering some of the things we've done with each other it's a little late in the game to be worrying about my having cooties."

"I just don't want scotch."

"Oh. That's different. There's beer in the fridge. We'll have a beer."

"I suppose I'm the one who has to go get these beers."

"You're closer," he reasoned. "Zone defense."

"Lazy drunk," Traci said as she pushed up off of the sofa and walked towards the kitchen. "My sober boyfriend would have gotten my beer for me," she shouted back at him.

"Yeah, he's a really nice guy," Jerry called out. "If you run into him say hi for me. I haven't seen him for a few hours."

Traci went into the refrigerator and pulled out a couple of beers. Jerry's explanation about this morning took a lot of her apprehension away. She would have definitely preferred that he told her the truth from the start, but his reasons for misleading her weren't nearly as ominous as she had feared.

Plus, he had spent the morning talking to his wife, but had still come to work and spent all day chasing after her. If she had known that he had seen his ex she might have let him catch her so she could hear what he had to say. She opened the bottles and went back out to living room deliberately leaving the tops on the counter instead of tossing them into the garbage. It might be a tad passive aggressive, but she dared him to complain later that she didn't clean up after herself.

"Here you go," she said handing a bottle to Jerry before sitting back down on the sofa next to him. Jerry reached out and pulled at her arm until she settled back down with her back up against him.

"Better," he murmured. It occurred to him that Traci was really letting him off the hook. She had listened to his explanation and accepted his apology. She deserved to hear the whole story, or at least the basics.

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her before taking a long drink from his beer. "You know why I love you?" He asked.

"No enlighten me."

"I love you because you aren't crazy. Crazy sucks."

Traci laughed. "Not crazy huh, you are all about the high standards aren't you there Detective."

"Not crazy is very important. Never underestimate the sex appeal of sanity. You are never more hot then when you're being level headed and rational."

"Thank you, that's what I was going for."

Jerry took a breath and decided to dive right in. "You're not supposed to say crazy though. It isn't PC. But when your wife is running around being all paranoid and throwing things at you and trying to kill herself it's kind of hard to remember to say rapid cycling bipolar episode.

Traci looked up at him in surprise. "Allison was bipolar?"

"Well depending on what doctors you ask, and there were a lot, Alli has a combination of mood, personality and anxiety disorders, with a whole lot of other fun stuff thrown into the mix, but we'll just round it off and leave it at bipolar."

"Bipolar isn't crazy Jerry, with medication…" Traci began.

Jerry interrupted her. "With medication it can be controlled and a person can lead a basically normal life, blah, blah, yes Officer Nash you are amazing enlightened and knowledgeable on the matter of mental illness, can I tell my own damn story?"

"Don't get snarky with me Barber, I was just saying."

"Shush. My story my way. I know Alli isn't cazy, the situation was crazy. INsane to be more precise. Alli is bipolar on top of a whole truckload of other issues I never knew about when we got married, because she never told me. A mutual friend, Dan Vickers out of 27 Division, introduced us. His wife and Alli were friends. She got them in the divorce by the way which was fine by me, I never liked Dan or his wife that much. All of them at the 27, pretty messed up crowd, seriously if you leave 15 never take a transfer to 27, 13 maybe, but never 27."

Traci sighed. "Jerry."

"What? Oh yeah, I digress. Where was I? Oh, you wouldn't think Alli and I had that much in common, but actually we did, it seemed like we worked together, more or less. It wasn't a perfect, but it seem good enough at the time. So we moved in and eventually got married." He looked down at Traci. "You do understand that this is like the Cliff's Notes version right? I'm just hitting all the highlights for you. Boy meets girl, boy and girl get married, girl throws shit at boy and shit hits the fan, etc.

"That's fine by me."

He went back to his story. "Well, we had always planned on having kids and after a couple of years we started trying. But it wasn't in the cards for us."

"She couldn't get pregnant?"

Jerry paused. Traci was just going to have to cut him a break on this one sometime in the future. He just wasn't up to cutting open that wound and recounting all the hope and crushing disappointments of that part of the story. "It just wasn't in the cards for us, let's leave it at that for now okay?"

"Okay."

"Anyway, we had been trying for a couple of years and after awhile Alli started to change. In her defense it was really hard on her. She had it all planned out, how many kids we would have, their names, the whole thing and it just wasn't happening the way it was supposed to. It was hard on us both, but it was really hard on Alli. Between the hormones and everything else she began acting erratically, she had these mood swings, she was depressed, then she was all hyped up and running around planning things and turning one of the spare bedrooms into a nursery. The house has four bedrooms. Then she had these rages." Jerry paused and took another long drink from his beer. In a weird way the fact that Traci was lying there with him, but they weren't facing each other made it a lot easier to talk to her about his marriage. In fact it wasn't nearly as hard as he had thought it would be. That was the funny thing about him and Traci nothing was really that difficult between them, unless they made it that way. He should have just told her a long time ago.

"It got so bad at one point that I was worried for her safety, and then it got to the point that Oliver and Sam were worried about my safety. I had to get a combination lockbox for my gun because I kept worrying that I'd be asleep or something and she'd find the key to my lockbox, and try to hurt herself. She was spiraling out of control. Then it would stop and she would seem back to normal mostly. I wanted her to get some sort of help, but she was really resistant to it. That's when I found out. When she was in college she had these episodes. Her parents had to have her hospitalized. That's when she was first diagnosed. By the time we met she had everything pretty much under control, she was in treatment, she was taking medication, she was in a good place. But she never told me. I guess I can understand sort of, when do you find the right time to tell someone?"

Traci wasn't as understanding. "Before you get married probably."

"Yeah well. It probably wouldn't have changed anything, at least I'd like to think it wouldn't have. I mean I would have still married her, but at least I would have known. I would have been prepared. Anyway it turned out that when we had trouble...having a baby she went off her medication thinking it would help. Which could have been managed if I had known about it, if she did it with her doctor's approval, or under supervision, but she just did it her way, went cold turkey, and with some of the stuff she was taking that can be dangerous. By the time I found out she was on a downward spiral and she was rapid cycling so the mood shifts came fast and furious and finding the right medication was a nightmare, she was resisting treatment and it became an impossible situation. Then after I had to have her hospitalized her parents stepped in and after awhile she stabilized and when she was released she went to stay with her parents for awhile and then I received divorce papers."

"Just like that?" Traci asked, her surprise evident in her tone.

"Pretty much just like that. I mean that's the basics like I said, the abbreviated version, but yeah for the most part, just like that. Haven't spoken to her since, well until today."

"Well that sucks." Traci tried to wrap her head around everything Jerry had said. To be honest it was tough. She couldn't imagine planning a life with someone and having it all fall apart like that and then they just up and leave. She probably would have been a lot angrier than Jerry was. She would have wanted answers or something. "There wasn't more to it? You didn't try to contact her or anything?"

"Well of course there was more to it, but there's no point in getting into it all. As for contacting her, What was the point? When it came right down to it she was better off with her family than with me. I couldn't help her. She didn't even trust me enough to tell me about her situation."

"That must have really hurt."

Jerry was quiet for a moment as he tried to think of the best way to explain his feelings at the time. "It did, at the time it hurt a lot. It hurt that she didn't trust me enough to tell me what was going on. It hurt that after everything we went through when she was stable again she didn't want anything to do with our life or me. I had put so much into it we had put so much into it, and then…nothing? That didn't seem right. But mostly it was just exhausting. I couldn't do anything right, I couldn't fix it. You might have noticed I like things a certain way, manageable. I don't do well with personal chaos. The woman I was married to wasn't the person I had thought I married. It was a lot to deal with, and maybe I dealt with it wrong, but I did try. It just didn't work out," he finished with a sigh.

Traci looked up at him. "Is that why you never talked about it? Because it hurt."

"I don't know, not really. It's hard to explain. It's not that I'm not over her Trace, because I am. It's more like…Well it got ugly, really ugly, it took everything out of me. It wasn't a relationship anymore, it was a situation. There wasn't any give and take, it was just a situation that had to be managed and dealt with. I lost my wife a long time before the actual divorce happened. In a way the whole experience was way more painful than the loss of the relationship. I'm not blaming her or anything. She was sick for a long time, it took a lot out of her. I never understood why when she was stable again she didn't want to work things out, but I didn't fight it. It was hard to get out of that place. I don't really do dark and tortured, it's not my bag. Life throws enough crap at you."

They were silent for a while. Jerry felt oddly liberated having finally confided in Traci. There had never really been a good time tell her before, he had never needed to. His divorced had already been finalized, though just barely when he had met Traci, and he had even casually dated a few other women between Alli and Traci. After the divorce casual stress free relationships were the only thing he was interested in, until he met Traci.

"You know," he began. "I didn't want anything remotely serious in my life after my divorce. When you and I met, it was fun. You didn't want anything from me or need anything from me, it was easy, no strings right. I didn't have to worry about you, you didn't give me any grief. It was all I was ready to handle. Don't get me wrong, you had your moments, but I never had to manage you. We were never more than I could handle. You grew on me."

"Like a fungus?"

Jerry shook his head. "What the hell is up with you and fungi lately? You just grew on me. We grew on me. You stopped being convenient and became necessary pretty quickly. I missed you when you weren't around. I wanted more. When we got more serious I was ready for that because we worked for me. We really worked, it wasn't a sort of thing, it was a perfect fit. You were everything I needed. Don't let it go to your head. Then when you left, when you tried to give Leo a family and work things out with Toad that's when I really knew how good we were, because it was gone and I missed it so much. I knew you would figure out too. Though I have to admit you took your damn sweet time about it. But that's only because you're hardheaded and stubborn. But now even you have to admit, we work Nash. We do. You're good for me."

"I'm glad to hear it."

Jerry grabbed her hips and moved so that she turned off her side and was lying flat up against him. He slid down a little so that that his face was directly under hers. "Wow, you are still too pissed to give an inch," he said.

Traci giggled as he teased the crook of her neck, right in the spot that always made her melt. "Fine," Traci relented. "There's a good chance you might be good for me too."

"You're damn right I am," Jerry crowed as he slid his hand up to the back of her head and pulled her down for a kiss.

Traci lost herself for a moment in the feel of his mouth against hers, his lips softly brushing across hers, his teeth gently tugging on her lips, tongue gently caressing hers. Jerry moaned softly as he deepened the kiss sliding his free hand down to the small of her back to pull her in closer to him.

Nobody kissed as well as Jerry. He kissed as though kissing was it's own activity to be fully enjoyed, not a prelude to something else. She could kiss him for hours, but now was not the time. Reluctantly, Traci pulled away from him breaking off the kiss. She still had questions "So what are you going to do?" She asked.

Jerry smiled seductively up at her. "Well I was thinking that I'd continue with the kissing, maybe throw in a bit of neck nuzzling and a little rhythmic grinding before moving on to the advance foreplay round. What the hell do you think I'm doing? I'm trying to make love to my girlfriend here Officer Nash."

She chuckled. "I got that part, I meant what are you going to do now that she's in town, your ex, Allison?"

Jerry groaned, dropped his arms from around her and threw back his head. Was it so damn much to ask that he could get to spend some time with the woman he loved and not have to talk about his ex the whole evening? "Yeah, I know my ex's name. You ruined a really good moment there Nash. I was planning on bringing my A game. All the really good advanced foreplay, the toe curling, make you beg for more kind of stuff, now I don't know if I'll get the mood back."

"Yeah something tells me if need be you'll find your groove again. But seriously. What are you going to do?"

"Uhmm, help Alli with the sale of the house and then get really happy when I see the check, since we put a huge down payment on it when we bought it and had a short term mortgage so my share from the sale will be pretty sweet. Plus it's my last real tie to my ex so I'll have even more reason to celebrate?"

"That's it?"

"Pretty much. Why?"

"I'm just wondering, I mean is she sticking around?"

"She might, she's not sure. Not that it matters Trace. It's not like you and Dex, you two share a child, you'll always have to communicate and deal with each other as long as you're co-parenting, Alli and I don't have any ties like that, and that's fine by me. I don't have a problem with her or anything, it's just that she's not a part of my life anymore. She's only a problem if we make her one."

Traci thought about that for a moment. "So how was she when you saw her?"

Jerry sighed. So much for moving on to more enjoyable pursuits. "She seemed fine more or less. Maybe a little overly nostalgic, but that was it. She knows about you, Zoe told her. So she wanted to know more about you. I just confirmed it, didn't get into though, just let her know I was with someone seriously."

Traci narrowed her eyes. "Why would it matter to her if you are involved with someone?"

"I don't know, you can never really tell with Alli. That's her problem though. My problem is figuring out a way to get my girlfriend out of her clothes. I mean she's lying on top of me and I'm getting absolutely no action. Honestly Traci. Do you even understand how hot this would be right now if you would just have the decency to wear a damn dress? It would just be so much easier. Lift it up push the panties off to the side and slide right in. We could be having sex right now."

"Lazy drunk. Sometimes you have to work for it."

"This isn't working for it. This is torture. Cruel and unusual punishment even."

"Deal with it. You owe me some answers. All I'm saying is Dex could be dating anyone in the world and I wouldn't care less, except about how it affected Leo of course. The only reason I would be interested other than that would be if I wanted to be with him. So I have to ask, why is she interested in who you are with?

Was it seriously so difficult for the stars to align and allow him to get some? He wasn't trying to be greedy, he didn't need a repeat performance of the night before, and right now he probably couldn't even handle it. But what was wrong about wanting a little bit of a drunken tumble with his girlfriend? Honestly!

"I don't know Trace. She's just digging, she's trying to figure out what her options are. I let her know that I'm not an option, but I don't even know if that was even a real consideration for her. Like I said, you can't always tell with Alli where her head is, so I'm not bothering to try to figure it out. I know where my head and my heart are and that's all that matters. Anyway, even if there was no you and me I wouldn't be interested. By the way, since you mentioned him you do know that if you lose your mind and leave me you can't go back to Playtex I'd hate that, you'd hate it to."

Well now that was an abrupt change of subject. At that point Traci knew he was letting her know that he was done with any serious talk for the evening. Not that she could blame him. What she had just heard too a lot out of her too, and all she did was listen, she didn't have to live through it. He had told her a lot this evening, she had a much better understanding of where everything stood. If he wanted to play now, she was willing to play along. "You really need to start calling my son's father by his name, but I'll keep that in mind."

Jerry sighed with relief. That was another reason he loved Traci, she knew when enough was enough. "Uhm, we have a deal, I can call him whatever I want as long as I don't slip and do it in front of Leo, and seriously, Kotex is done, over with, you can't ride that pony again. You know," he whispered. "Dexter is the name of a serial killer or a socially awkward cartoon boy with a weird accent and a lab in his basement. How could you scream out Dex in the throes of passion, Forget I asked that, don't want to think about you and Lurch in the throes of passion. I'd like to think that you just dreamed of me when you were with him. Did I ever tell you that he looks like Lurch from the Adams Family? Seriously thank god for your genes. Leo turned out to be a really good-looking kid. You single handedly came to his genetic rescue and saved him from a whole lot of ugly."

She laughed. "Dex is a very good looking man. I don't do ugly."

Jerry threw back his head and groaned. "Seriously Traci? I'm lying here drunk off my ass in obvious emotional pain and sexual torment baring my soul to you and you choose this as the right time to start talking about your ex being good looking? You are a cold cruel woman. A little sensitivity please. Now where was I, oh yeah, so no dating Vortex. Maybe you could date someone from the 15th. Not Homicide though or Swarek definitely not Swarek, he'll smolder you to death."

"Yes and then there's the little issue of my best friend," she reminded him.

"Whatever. Epstein could never handle you, you'd put the boy in traction, hell the thought of you could put that boy in traction. Maybe Diaz? Nah, he's really pretty and tall. I don't want you with someone that pretty and that tall, Geez, he's tall. Okay, new rule, you can have tall or pretty, but not both. I'd have to forgive you if you went for Frank, he's more handsome than pretty, and a great guy. But Noelle would kick your ass."

"What?"

"What? Nothing. I didn't say anything about Noelle and Frank dating for the past couple of months. Oops, I didn't say it again, though you'll never make Detective if you didn't see that one. I got it. Peck. You should date Peck. I could really get behind you and Peck being together."

"Well that makes one of us."

"Don't be so damn picky. She's a great girl. One day she's going to make some man very happy, when she divorces him." Jerry laughed at his own joke. "It would be so cool. Your super couple name could be Trail? Tail? You've got to admit, Tail is pretty cool. Or maybe we should go a little subtler. Gaici? Graci? Pash, maybe Neck? I'll get back to you on that one."

"Are you finished trying to pimp me out?"

"Nope. You can't date Boyd."

"Trust me I wouldn't want to."

"You could totally have Boyd if you wanted him. Boyd thinks you're hot, but he's a tool."

Traci shuddered. "He is a bit of a tool, and he does not think I'm hot."

"Like hell he doesn't. He was creeping around the station one day sniffing after Sammy, like always, and you walked by and he goes to me 'So Barber, are you really tapping that?' I mean who says that? Tapping? Totally crass and disrespectful to you as a cop and as a woman."

"So what did you say?"

"I said hell yeah I'm tapping that, banging her til she can't walk. Then he high fived me and we went out for a beer."

Traci reached up and smacked him on the back of the head. "And that wasn't crass and disrespectful?"

"Ow, shit Traci." Jerry said halfway between a laugh and a groan. "That was different, that was defensive crassness. I had to talk to him _mano y mano_ on his own frighteningly low level."

He unsuccessfully tried to dodge as she swung at him again. "Cut it out. I'm kidding. I told him he better not to talk about my girlfriend like that or else."

"So by making it clear we were together and calling me your girlfriend you got to verify that you indeed were tapping it without sinking to his level."

Jerry gave an admiring nod. "Damn you're good. Most women wouldn't have caught on to that, they would have been stuck on the whole I defended their honor thing. Nice job and come on, I had to defend my turf."

"So now I'm turf? Do you want to just piss on me so there's no confusion?"

"Piss on you? Sorry Trace. I'm not into that kind of thing, but it's good to know that you're willing to push sexual boundaries I'll keep that in mind."

"Sexual boundaries my ass."

"Mmm," He wiggled his eyebrows, as his hands slid down to her backside. "Now that I could be into."

She smacked him on the back of the head again.

"Ow, now see that wasn't cute the first two times. Violence is never the answer. Besides, I didn't bring it up you brought it up. How am I the bad guy if you brought it up? Anyway about the turf thing I meant to say defend the incredible bond of love, trust, mutual respect and intimacy that we have forged together it just came out as turf. Honest mistake."

"I'll bet. Well Barber this has been great, but I had a long day. I'm ready for bed," Traci said as she pushed herself up off of him stood and stretched.

Jerry snorted as he sat up. "Yeah, all that running around the barn trying to avoid me must have been exhausting."

She smiled and said teasingly, "It was, and you wouldn't take the hint."

He squinted up at her. "Wait, don't move. When you stand right there, there are two of you. Oh that's nice. I've had dreams like this, only both of you had on a lot less clothing. And I'm pretty sure there was a bottle of honey and some chocolate syrup involved. What are we going to call the other you, Traci Two? Traci Too? Though honestly who could tell the difference. Maybe Racy?"

"Jerry."

"No, that's my name, it would be too confusing. How bout Lola? Oh that sounds good. Lola. It even feels sexy saying it, come on say it with me Loolaaa."

"You are so lucky I love you."

"Lola, you know you're the woman of my dreams. Well almost. I mean you look like her and act like her, but she's far less chatty, more of a carnal physical type."

Jerry reached up and took her hand and pulled her back down so that she was straddling his lap. He looked at her through hooded eyes, smiling that smile of his that never failed to do things to her. "Mmmm. Stay here with me Lola," he whispered as he started to kiss her neck. "I'll make it worth your while."

Traci laughed softly as she slid her hands up to his shoulders. She did love his Mac Daddy vibe. "My sober boyfriend remembers my name."

Jerry tilted his head back and smiled up at her. "Your sober boyfriend asked me to take care of you until he gets back."

"Did he now?"

"Yup," he answered before returning his attention to her neck. "Come on, let's stay here for awhile. I'm not ready for bed yet," he slid his hand under her sweater and started softly caressing her back.

"You know Jerry, sometimes you don't listen that well," Traci said as she began to undo the buttons of his dress shirt.

Jerry shifted slightly to allow her to pull the tails of his shirt from out of his pants. "What do you mean?"

"I said I was ready for bed, I never said I was ready to sleep," she said suggestively as she pushed open his shirt and brushed her hands on his bare chest her nails scrapping teasingly across his nipples.

Jerry unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and let her push it off of him. "No actually I caught that. I'm all about the subtle nuances of Traci speak. I'm just conserving my energy. I'd rather put it to good use on you than waste it on walking to the bedroom."

Traci giggled. "Lazy drunk."

He grinned up at her as he slid down a little so she was pressed up against his erection. "Not that lazy, and not that drunk."

Jerry held her gaze as he slowly undid the buttons on her sweater. He pushed it open and then pulled it down freeing it from her arms and tossed in off to the side. "You really are so beautiful," he whispered as his hands slid up her back and he effortlessly unclasped her bra. He hooked his fingers in the straps and pulled it off tossing it in the same direction as her sweater.

He placed one hand in the small of her back as he ran his other hand across the front of her body brushing his fingers down her throat across her collar bone, gently stroking her breasts, before hooking both of his hands under her armpits and lifting her slightly so he could dip his head to capture one of her nipples between his lips and began to slowly suck on it.

Traci's head fell back as she gasped and arched her back in pleasure digging her fingers into his shoulders as he flicked his tongue over her nipple then leisurely began to swirl his tongue around it lavishing attention on the sensitive bud until it was almost painfully hard before moving to accommodate the other nipple. He felt her shiver up against him.

"Stand up," he said to her huskily as he pushed away from the back of the sofa sitting fully up and helping her to raise herself off of him. He moved down so that he was seated at the edge of the sofa with her standing in between his legs. He slid his hands up her hips and around to her back bringing her closer so he could gently kiss her abdomen.

"I'm just going to help you out of these pants so that you'll be more comfortable." Jerry said as he unbuttoned her jeans and lowered the zipper.

Traci wiggled her hips slightly to help him as he eased her pants down. "You always think of me. So sweet," she said as she stepped out of her pants.

"I keep telling you. I'm a giver." He paused for a moment to admire the sight of her standing there in front of him wearing barely there black lace panties. He loved her body, absolutely worshiped the combination of curves and muscle that made up her slim frame. "Come here." He said softly holding her by her waist as he drew her back down so she was straddling his lap again.

Traci rested her hands on his shoulders as she lowered her head to gently brush her mouth against his. Her lips parted as she caught his lower lip between hers. Jerry groaned deeply against her mouth as her tongue darted into his mouth and began to slowly tease and caress his.

She felt him hard and throbbing up against the thin fabric of her panties as she ground down into him and started rocking up against him. Jerry reached between them and quickly unbuckled his belt and undid his pants. Traci rose up slightly so he could lift his hips and work his pants and his boxers down, never breaking their kiss. Traci reached behind her and took him into her hand. He was hard and ready throbbing in her hand. She lifted her head and smiled at him. "I guess you really aren't that drunk after all," she said huskily as she slowly stroked him her thumb playing with his tip tracing slow lazy circles.

Jerry groaned. Her hand was so hot, and the friction, how the hell was her hand so damn hot? He kicked off his pants the movement causing him to jerk in her hand and she tightened her grip on him.

"Shit," Jerry spat out as he grabbed her hips and attempted to move her into position.

Traci smiled down at him. "In rush are we?" she teased as she rose up hovering just above him not letting him pull her down.

"Evil, evil woman," he muttered. He slipped his hand between her legs and brushed his fingers against the crotch of her panties. He could feel how wet she was through the fabric. She jumped a little at his touch. Jerry smiled wickedly as he slipped his fingers under the fabric moistened the tips with her own wetness and began to toy with her clit. Traci released her grip on him to grab onto his thigh to steady herself as she felt her legs grow weak.

He was fascinated by how she closed her eyes and bit her lip in pleasure as he curled his fingers so he could slip one into her as he continued work her clit with the other. She began to slowly rotate pressing herself harder against his hand.

"Jerry," she said insistently.

"Now who's in a hurry?" He asked hoarsely. But he wasn't in the mood to taunt her for very long. Not when he wanted it as much if not more than she did. He pushed aside the lace of her panties and slid inside of her lowering her slowly down until he was complete within her. He didn't move for a moment just savoring the feel of her wet and tight around him bending his neck down to tease her nipples before he started to slowly rock his hips.

Traci rested her one hand on his shoulder and the other on the back of the sofa clutching the pillows as she raised and lowered herself on him. She moaned softly as he continued to run his tongue across the skin of her chest, to suck at her throat. He loved the feel of her, the taste of her. Everything about her was completely familiar to him and yet at the same time inexplicably more exciting then ever. He was just going to have to accept the fact that the more he had her the more he wanted her.

"You feel so good," he groaned, slowly thrusting into her wetness. Gripping her ass and holding on to her as she rocked back and forth against him. Oh god she felt so damn good. Steadily they began to increaser the pace meeting each other thrust for thrust until they were perfectly in sync.

"Harder," she moaned.

He was more than happy to oblige. He flipped her over on her back so that she was lying lengthwise on the sofa her back against the arm. He hooked her legs around his waist and slammed into her burying himself to the hilt. He pulled almost all the way out chuckling a little at the groan of protest Traci made before he pushed back deep inside. His fingers dug hard into her hips, holding her in place while he drove into her over and over, the pace hard and fast.

He could tell she was close as she began to dig her fingers into his shoulders her breathing coming in short gasps. He tightened his grip on her and plunged into her.

Traci threw her head back and cried out as her climax washed over her and she bucked against him her muscles clenching and unclenching around him drawing him over the edge with her.

"Oh God. Trace," he grunted as he gave one final thrust driving himself completely in her as he shuddered and exploded collapsing on top of her.

He lay there for a moment his forehead resting against hers trying to catch his breath and recover slightly before rolling off of her onto his side against the back of the sofa. Traci shifted so that her back was to him and he spooned up against her holding her up against him.

"I love you," he said pressing a kiss onto the side of her neck. "And god I love make up sex. We should fight more often, the make up sex is really worth it."

Traci chuckled. Her boyfriend was an idiot. A psychotic, Tupperware buying, label making, sports car naming, kick-ass kissing one hell of a good lover, stupid statement making during the afterglow idiot. She was just going to have to accept it.

Jerry continued to nuzzle the nape of her neck. "Hey, you know why else I love you?"

"Why?" Traci murmured.

"Because you forgive me when I'm an ass."

"Well, when you know you've been an ass you try to make up for it, so it's easier to forgive."

Jerry hugged her tightly. "I was just thinking that the only thing that could make me love you more right now would be if you got up and got us a blanket."

"If _I_ got up and got a blanket?" she said incredulously. "You really are a lazy ass drunk."

"Oh come on, you're closer, zone defense."


	8. Chapter 8

Frank Best had at one time or another ridden with all three of the men currently seated in his office. He had lost money in cards to them, won money from them, gotten drunk, celebrated marriages, commiserated over divorce, and worried in hospital waiting rooms with them. In other words they weren't just his subordinates, they were his friends, and when he was promoted to staff sergeant and put in the position of being commanding officer to his former colleagues and his friends each and everyone of these three men showed him the respect his position deserved because of the respect he had earned as their friend and colleague, which had assisted him in making the transition to boss and discouraged anyone else in the division from testing his authority. It was for that reason and that reason only that he was willing to allow them another five minutes to test his patience by hanging out in his office. Besides, it was practically the end of the shift, and he was looking forward to spending a pleasant evening with Noelle, so it made him far more tolerant.

"Seriously, don't you three have some end of day paperwork or something to do?" he asked for the second time.

"I am working," Jerry said looking up from the file he was flipping through. "I can't speak for these guys."

"Jerry man, come on," Oliver whined. "You're going to be gone all weekend, you have to get Watson off my back, he wants me to sit in the bucket with Epstein and Diaz for two days watching to see if any of the of the stolen cars get moved through the chop shop. I can't deal with the Wonder Twins for two whole shifts. I'm begging you here."

"Weren't the Wonder twins a boy and a girl? Peckstein are more like the Wonder twins," Sam asked.

"Yeah, Diaz is their pet monkey Gleek," Jerry said with a laugh.

Frank shook his head. "Stop picking on my rooks, and Ollie, what is this Let's Make a Deal? An assignment is an assignment."

Jerry grinned. "Don't worry about it Ollie, I'll get Watson to use Johnson in the bucket. He just wants a senior officer in there. He still doesn't trust any of the rooks."

Frank looked at Jerry in surprise. "You're in a good mood if you are willing to sweet talk Watson for Shaw. What happened to if it's not my op I don't mess with it?"

"Hey just because Watson is stuck with it for a couple of days doesn't mean it's not my operation. Plus I don't plan to spend my weekend fielding whiny calls from the Ollie in the van."

Swarek snorted. "That's not it, he's in a good mood because Nash let him out of the dog house last night, it has to be. He's been bouncing around here grinning and chipper all day, damn annoying if you ask me. I could swear he was skipping and whistling earlier. Even bought coffee for the crime scene guys at that shooting on Church Street. They almost passed out from the shock."

Jerry smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "They looked thirsty and cold. What am I slave driver?"

Sam waved him off. "No, you're a cheap bastard who doesn't treat anybody to anything unless you are in a really damn good mood or you can make them beg for it. And since you left here yesterday looking like someone killed your dog and today you've been bouncing around like a happy puppy that's eating a canary I'm guessing you were in the dog house and last night Nash let you off the hook."

Oliver gave Sam a baffled look shaking his head in bewilderment. "Do you even hear yourself when you talk? Puppy, canary, dog house, hook? The Modern Language Association called, they want you to cease and desist using metaphors and similes and destroying figurative language." Still shaking his head he turned to Jerry and asked. "How did you manage to get yourself in trouble yesterday? When I left you two at the Penny you were both all smiles as happy as could be."

Jerry wasn't going to broach the subject of Alli. Not in front of Frank and Sam, especially not in front of Sam. Sam had no patience for Alli. Even before her episodes Sam was never particularly fond of her. He had never said a word against her, but Jerry could tell from the beginning that she rubbed Sam the wrong way. In spite of that though Sam had been very supportive to both of them during the miscarriages. He had sat in the hospital with Jerry two out of the three times, and would have been there the third if he was able to, it was later when everything had gone to hell and Jerry had found out that his wife had a history that she had never disclosed to him that Sam had been the least sympathetic of all his friends towards Alli. In fact Alli made enough of a negative impression on Sam that Sam had actually been inspired to comment on it eventually.

It was pretty uncharacteristic of Sam actually, since he always had a soft spot for a woman in trouble or distress. But to Sam's way of thinking while the fact that she was mentally ill was something Alli had no control over she did have control over how she dealt with it. Sam never saw past the fact that Alli hadn't confided in Jerry or that she had _chosen_ to go off her medication on her own without any warning. So all of the drama, and the episodes were all preventable in his opinion.

As Sam had put it, plenty of perfectly nice people suffer from mental illness, so you got to figure plenty of not so nice people suffer from it to. In Sam's opinion Alli fell closer to the latter category. During the divorce he had once said to Jerry, "Allison is selfish and a manipulator. You might be an asshole, but anyone who really knows you knows that you are loyal asshole, and you stand by and stand up for your people. Alli had to know that there was no way you would have left her if she had of told you about her issues before you got married. She didn't tell you because she just didn't want to, and that's not something you do to someone you say you love."

Out of all his friends Sam was also only one who didn't question why Jerry just let it go when Alli sent the divorce papers. He figured it was a clean break and Jerry was lucky to get out.

Plus, Sam actually liked Traci. He said she was a good cop, and Jerry knew that that was high praise from Sam, but beyond that he liked her as a person. He had once said to Jerry that she was the best thing to ever happen to him and if he were smart he wouldn't screw it up. So no. Jerry wasn't about to share that his ex was back in town and he had let it create tension between him and Traci.

He turned to Oliver and said. "No biggie just a little misunderstand, and I wasn't in the doghouse."

Frank laughed before commenting. "You _are_ in a suspiciously good mood today Barber."

"Just looking forward to a weekend off."

"Big plans?" Frank asked.

"Not really The Leafs game, oh and Robots Rule at the Science Center. Leo wanted to go."

Sam laughed. "Leo wanted to go my ass, you wanted to go you undercover geek."

"I'm a geek? Who was right there with me last year?" Jerry asked Sam.

"Oh man, I love the maze competition," Oliver said.

"Really nice offering to take one of us to the game by the way." Sam said sarcastically.

Jerry shrugged. "You guys are going to be working the afternoon shift. Traci asked McNally to come along with us, she's working the morning shift, and so she's off. You do know that technically they are Traci's tickets right?"

"Speaking of," Oliver began after exchanging a look with Frank and Sam. "I could swear that at the last game I heard Nash mention that Leo is going to be with his dad all next weekend so he won't be around for next Saturday's game."

Jerry nodded. "Yeah, we have him this weekend, so next week SFB is taking him for the whole weekend.""

Sam looked at him questioningly. "SFB?"

"SFB? Oh, Shit For Brains," Oliver said. "Nice one Barber," he added extending his fist to Jerry.

Jerry leaned over and gave him a fist bump. "Well you know, I try to mix it sometimes, keep it from getting stale."

Sam looked at Oliver with an expression halfway between impressed and mystified. "How the hell did you get Shit For Brains from SFB?"

Oliver shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I know how Barber's mind works."

Frank chimed in. "I like it, subtle. Though I was fond of that week you called him DAD."

Sam asked, "What's wrong with Dad? He is the kid's father."

"Not _Dad_, D.A.D. acronym for Dumb As Dirt. It took a week before Nash realized what he was saying," Oliver explained.

Sam shook his head laughing, "Am I the only one here that remembers that Nash's ex was actually the wronged party?" he asked.

Jerry flashed him a dirty look. "What, are you the fairness police? I don't like him, I can call him whatever the hell I want."

"I'm just saying, you were the homewrecking tramp, not him," Sam said.

"Stop commenting on my private business anyway."

Sam turned to him grinning. "That business stopped being private when you got knocked out for the whole division to see, maybe you should start calling the guy Rocky."

Jerry shook his head in annoyance. "How the hell does that story keep getting further and further from the truth? It was a sucker punch and I tripped, nobody got knocked out and by the way if you want to talk about…"

"Anyway," Oliver said interrupting them. "I was checking out the new schedule and I noticed that through some crazy coincidence you, me Sammy and Frank are all not working between the hours of 7 and 10pm that Saturday, and through some sad turn of events Nash is scheduled to work the afternoon shift. "

"Poor. Poor Nash," Sam added shaking his head.

"The worse part is no one can switch with her," Oliver added

"How do you know that?" Jerry asked.

Frank answered. "Trust me, no one is allowed, er available to switch with her. Forget about that though, the thing is the Leafs are playing the Senators, and we'd hate for the tickets to go to waste. So we thought maybe..."

"Maybe I'll take Callaghan and Watson and Reynolds? Excellent idea."

"Over my dead body," Sam threw in.

"Don't tempt me Swarek. I can't believe you guys are trying to rob my woman and my kid of their tickets."

Oliver raised one eyebrow and looked pointedly at Frank. "Did he just say what I think he said…?"

"Yup. I heard it too," Frank said nodding.

Sam looked at them grinning. "Wow. I told you he was all in. It's like he's fallen and he can't get up he's in so deep."

"Does he even realize that he said it?" Oliver asked

Jerry looked at them questioningly. "What the hell are you guys talking about?"

"Apparently not. That was a serious awww moment. If I were into saying awww I would be saying awww right now." Frank said.

"I'm almost misty over here," Sam said.

"Tell me about it. I want to go home and write about it in my diary, and I don't even have a diary." Oliver added. "So cute."

"What the hell?" Jerry asked.

"You know, I love the way he doesn't even know what he said, it sort of makes it that much more special," Oliver said.

"I was just thinking the exact same thing," commented Frank.

"Stick a fork in him," Sam said with a laugh.

Oliver turned to Sam. "See now that right there is much better. It was clear, concise, and appropriate to the situation. I mean you could have finished, you know, stick a fork in him he's done, but at least you didn't say something like stick a fork in him he's water under the bridge."

Jerry looked from one to the other now completely confused. "What the hell?"

"Should we tell him?" asked Sam.

"Nah, it would spoil the moment." Frank decided.

"Nothing man, so are we going or not?" asked Oliver.

Jerry looked from one to another of them and back trying to figure out what the hell they had been talking about. Finally he gave up. "Yeah, I guess, but somebody is paying me something."

"What did I tell you?" Sam said. "Such a damn cheapskate."

Jerry rolled his eyes. "Please, do you know how much those damn tickets cost?"

"You said Nash and Leo were worth every cent," Sam reminded him.

"_They_ are, _you_ aren't, and you've been going to games on my dime for weeks, least you could do is pay up for once."

"He has a point," Oliver said.

"No he doesn't," Sam said. "Nash banned me the last few games, it's been all you Shaw."

Oliver shrugged. "Hey that's the price of having a such a potty mouth."

"Whatever, we can throw in a few bucks," Frank said.

"Oh says the man pulling in a Staff Sergeant's salary," Sam griped.

Jerry laughed. "And he calls me the cheapskate."

"Now that it's all settled could you people get out of my office," Frank said pointedly.

Jerry looked at him with a mock hurt expression as the three of them got up and started making their way to the door. "Geez man, where is the love? Noelle would have never kicked us out of her office if she had been made staff sergeant."

"She wouldn't have kicked me and Sam out," Oliver corrected him patting him on the back. "She'd kick you out in a heartbeat Jerry. You made her baby-sit, again, on that missing girl case in Cabbagetown, you've been working her nerves lately. You should hear her, She talks about you like a dog. I'd defend you, but well, I just choose not to, she's so funny when she's dogging you out."

"She really is man, you should hear her," Frank agreed. "She needs her own sitcom or something."

* * *

><p>Jerry couldn't believe that he was having the same argument again. It was like talking to a brick wall. It seemed that no matter how many times he attempted to calmly explain himself he just couldn't seem to get through and get his point across.<p>

"Look, your mom and Sammy are not cooler coppers than I am just because they wear uniforms. I am so cool I don't have to wear a uniform anymore."

Leo sat in his barstool at the kitchen island looking at the laptop seeming completely unimpressed with Jerry's assertions of coolness. "They look cool in their uniforms. Did you look cool in your uniform?"

"I was the very definition of cool in my uniform, and then I became a detective and changed the definition," Jerry said as he placed a bowl of ice cream in front of Leo.

"Mommy says that you couldn't handle your uniform, she says it cramped your style, because you didn't have what it takes to pull it off," Leo said slyly before digging in.

Jerry sneered. "Your Mom is a…your Mom is a lovely woman who is nowhere near as funny as she thinks she is. Besides, she never saw me in uniform, and she doesn't look nearly as cute in hers as she thinks she does. She should have more respect too. You know I was one of her teachers, I actually taught her how to be a cop."

"Sam and Oliver said they teach her to be a cop every day."

"Sam and Oliver teach her the mechanics, I teach her technique and flair, and you know what, I get to tell all of them what to do at work."

"Like a boss?"

"Exactly like a boss. A very _cool_ boss."

"Just like Mommy tells you what to do home, so she's _your_ boss."

"You are so funny today, seriously who writes your material?" Jerry asked as he took the seat next to Leo and started working on his own bowl of ice cream. "So what do you think? You like any of those?" He asked pointing his spoon at the laptop.

"This one looks like a girls car," Leo said wrinkling his nose as he turned the laptop to show Jerry the page he was currently on.

"It does doesn't it?" Jerry agreed. "Your Mom likes that one. I'm just humoring her, there is no way I'm buying anything that looks that much like a mini van. Can you see me driving that to a crime scene? Everyone would laugh at me."

Leo nodded sagely. "Especially since you don't wear a uniform."

"Don't start with me again Munchkin."

Leo switched to one of the other book marked pages. "I like this one. It has a DVD player and a video game council in the back."

"Console, video console, and why would I care about that?" Jerry teased. "I don't spend time in the back seat of my car. Well not since high school, but that's a different thing entirely. Though a video or two could have come in handy back then."

"Well what if someone you liked was in the back seat and wanted to see a movie or play a game or something?" Leo asked.

"You know I didn't think about that. It's something to consider."

"It has cup holders in the back too. Look," Leo said pointing to the screen.

"Oh yeah, that's the first thing I look for in a car, the number of cup holders. So, I've been thinking about this Ella Jane Tulip situation I've been hearing about."

"Mommy told you about that?" Leo asked looking down at his bowl.

"She did."

"My Dad says she likes me and that's why she's bothering me and I should just ignore her."

"Well, maybe she likes you maybe she doesn't. That doesn't make it any easier when she's picking on you I'm guessing."

Leo nodded. "I wanted to hit her, but Mom says I shouldn't hit anybody, especially not girls. She says that Ella Jane might be acting mean, but she is still a good person inside and I should find the good in her and maybe we can get along."

What a crock of shit from the girl who fought her way through school, Jerry thought, but wisely chose to not say out loud. He was really going to have to intervene on this one. Carefully intervene, or Ms. No Hitting was going to kick his ass. "Your Mom is right, you shouldn't hit girls." Jerry paused to listen for signs that Traci was approaching. This was dangerous territory that he was heading into, but he hated to see Leo getting picked on, especially when there was a relatively easy way to put an end to it in this case. When satisfied that Traci was still busy in the back of the apartment he leaned in closer to Leo and continued. "That doesn't mean you can't send someone else in to do your wet work."

"Wet work?"

"_Mokroye delo. _The messy stuff, your dirty work. What they don't teach you spy terminology? What kind of school are you going to? You're a pretty popular kid, most of the other kids like you, it's just this Tulip girl right? So let's see, who would be good for this job? Hey, who were those two older girls who walked you to the car that day when your Mom and I picked you up together?"

Leo looked at him confused for a moment before he remembered. "Oh, Camille and Angela. They're in grade six. They're nice, they were Buddies for my class when I was in kindergarten. They call me their little brother."

Jerry nodded. "That's what I mean, they'll do nicely, and they obviously think you are still the sweetest cutest little thing on earth. Did you ever tell them that Ms. Tulip was becoming a problem? Maybe you should ask their advice on dealing with her, because I'm sure they would love to have a word with her about her treatment of their adorable little bro. I'm just saying use your assets and delegate. You don't want them to do anything to her, just let her know they'll be watching. Trust me, no one is better at putting a little scare into someone than bikers and grade six girls, and to be honest grade six girls might be even scarier than bikers, bikers at least have a code, grade six girls are ruthless," he added before turning his attention back to his ice cream.

Leo thought about it. "So if she thinks they'll bother her Ella Jane won't bother me?"

Jerry shrugged. "What do you think?"

"But what if they get in trouble?" Leo asked.

"I'm pretty sure they have learned how to deliver a warning while maintaining plausible deniability that it was a threat. Anyway, you aren't asking them to do anything. You are just letting them know that this girl is bothering you. What they do with that information is up to them." Wow, Jerry figured he had to be breaking at least eleven of the top ten rules of good parenting, but hey, kids picking on each other was a part of the circle of life, he just wanted to raise Leo up to a higher spot on the food chain. Circle, chain, geez his metaphors were getting as screwy as Sam's.

Leo studied Jerry for a long moment and then smiled. "This is one of those things I shouldn't tell Mommy about right?"

"You got it. We never even had this conversation," Jerry said without looking up from his bowl as he extended his fist out.

Leo nodded and gave him a fist bump. "Thanks Jerry."

"Don't mention it. For real, never mention it. Eat your ice cream, and then go tell your Mom to hurry up or she gets left behind. We're going to miss the face off."

"You aren't going to leave her behind."

Jerry shook his head. "I might leave both of you behind if it means I won't have to ride in her car."

"You should hurry up and get your new car."

"That's a great idea, we should start looking to see what cars we like and…Hey aren't we already doing that. What do I always tell you? If you're not part of the solution..."

"You're just being a Sam Swarek."

"Thank you."

"Why do you and Sam always make fun of each other?"

"Because they are emotionally stunted and can't admit that they love and depend on each other like brothers. It's really very sad," Traci said from the doorway.

"Yeah, not what she said," Jerry added, looking over at her. "It's nice to see you finally decided to join us Nash. I was going to send ETF in after you."

"Ha, ha. So Mr. Leo, I looked into the guest room and saw a bunch of toys all over the place. What's the deal with that?"

Leo jumped up off of his stool. "Sorry Mommy, I'll clean up." He said as he ran out of the kitchen.

"So what were you two in here talking about for all this time?" Traci asked as she came over to where he was sitting and helped herself to some of his ice cream.

"Nothing much, just the new car." Jerry reached over and pulled her so that she was standing in between his legs. "Hey I was thinking, what's the point in your trying to coordinate everything with you your mom Cro Magnon Man and Andy to watch Leo this week. You and I aren't even working the same shift most days what with you on mornings and me on afternoons. You have to leave for work so early this week, why don't you two just stay the whole week. We can go to your place tomorrow after the museum and get some more things for you. It would be easier if you take my car in the mornings to work, and I take Leo in your car to school later. Then you and I can switch cars at the station and you can pick Leo up from school and come back here. I mean it just makes the most sense."

Traci looked at him thoughtfully. "Are you sure that won't be too much for you?"

"I wouldn't suggest it if it wasn't what I wanted to do. Plus I know how much you love driving around in Stella picking up guys."

Traci smiled at him. "I do look hot driving Stella. You are so good to me Barber," she said as she leaned in to kiss him.

Jerry tightened his arms around her and sighed as she ended the kiss. "And you are so mean to me. I see you're wearing pants again. It's like I talk to myself," he said in mock frustration.

Traci laughed. "I see no door, wall, sofa or kitchen counter action in your immediate future buddy, not with the munchkin present. It's all in the bedroom after bedtime behind a locked door."

"See, but the idea of it, the little tease of the possibility, that would be a serious turn on. Plus, there are walls in the bedroom."

"You stay turned on. I have yet to find your off switch," Traci said with a grin.

"Well this little taking my libido for granted kick you're on just might flip that switch off for you Officer."

"What's a libido?" asked Leo from the doorway.

Jerry grimaced. "Oh look there goes the switch, off, see that wasn't so hard."

Traci shot him a dirty look before turning her attention to Leo. "Well it's a, it's a…"

Jerry interrupted. "Hey munchkin you want some more of that ice cream. I think I still have chocolate syrup around here somewhere too."

"Cool," Leo said as he climbed back onto his barstool.

Traci narrowed her eyes as Jerry stood up and brushed passed her.

"What?" he whispered. "Sometimes the best move is distraction and bribery, it works. Don't knock my methods." He added in a louder voice. "So one more bowl and then we're off to pick up Aunt Andy for the game. Go Leafs!"


	9. Chapter 9

Jerry lay in bed on his back with his arms crossed behind his head, watching Traci as she sat cross-legged eagerly eating the chocolate cheesecake he had purchased for desert.

Traci sighed in ecstasy as she took another bite. "Mmm, this is so good. Seriously. I think I'm in love."

"I thought I was in love too, until you started talking with food in your mouth. A little decorum please woman," he teased as he sat up and reached over to wipe a bit of the cake from the corner of her mouth.

"Shut up, it's good. And you must still love me or you wouldn't let me eat in bed you neat freak."

Jerry threw his head back on to the pillows. "Oh come on, 'eat in bed?' If you're going to make it easy for me to twist everything you say into something sexual it's no fun."

"So sorry. I'll make it more challenging next time," she giggled.

He reached over and started to rub her thigh through the fabric of her pajama pants. "You know, this could be so much more fun without clothing. For example right now I could be licking some of that cheesecake off of your stomach."

"You'd mess up the sheets," Traci warned him.

"Screw the sheets," Jerry responded.

Traci gave him a sympathetic look. "Is that what you do when I'm not here? Poor baby. Come to think of it poor sheets."

Jerry gave her a sad look. "When you're not here I curl up in a ball and cry."

"See, I always suspected that."

His hand continued its travels up her thigh to her hip and to the waistband of her pants where he attempted to pull them down. "Just take the pants off for a little while longer," he said huskily. "I'm not sleepy yet, and neither are you."

Traci wiggled away from him swatting his hand with her fork. "We are going to sleep Jerry, we have to get up early tomorrow."

"Actually you have to get up early." Jerry corrected her. "Leo and I have an hour of sleep left after you're gone, so don't wake us up Missy."

"You know for someone who is trying to get a little extra sumpthin' sumpthin' you sure are running your mouth a lot."

"And yet I'm not worried."

"Feeling pretty sure of yourself there Barber."

"Forgive me if I'm just confident about the strength of our love for one another."

Traci grinned begrudgingly. "Okay, that was a good one."

Jerry winked at her. "I keep telling you, when it comes to charming the pant off of you, literally, I'm The Man."

"Well, you do know how to show a girl a good time. This was a great weekend. Leo had a terrific time too. I'm glad we did this, and I'm glad we decided to stay here for the rest of the week."

Jerry glanced over at her. "You know," he began. "It could always be like this."

"Really? How's that?"

"I mean you know, if we lived together or something," he added casually.

Traci looked at him questioningly. "Or something. But we aren't having this conversation right now, right?"

Jerry smiled, he had to hand it Traci, she knew how to make him work for it. Was he really ready to have this conversation right now? Lay it all on the table and make concrete decisions? Probably not, he mused, but he was ready to find out what the terms would be. "No we're not, having the conversation that is. But if we were I already know, you won't move in here."

Traci slowly ate the last bite of her cake before putting the plate down on the nightstand. "Well if at some point we decided to get a place together, that's one thing, but I'm not moving into _your _apartment."

Jerry nodded. "Because you have control issues."

"If we were having this conversation right now, which we aren't, I would say that it's not about control issues, it's about living together being a big step, especially with my having a child, and it shouldn't be about it being convenient for _you_, it should be about both of us committing to something."

Jerry thought about that for a moment. He could deal with that. "So if I were to say that if Alli and I sell the house I'd want to put this place on the market and then we could find something suitable for us, you me and Leo, that would be the type of commitment you're referring to?"

"Pretty much. If we were having that discussion," Traci answered.

"But we're not."

"Just so we're clear."

"I'll keep that in mind though," Jerry finished with a grin. "So about these pants. Why don't you just take them off and we'll just sleep naked. I promise I won't do anything, scouts honor."

"You were never a scout, and what happens if Leo comes in here in the middle of the night?"

Jerry sighed. "Good point, all we need is for Leo to tell SFB, that he walked in on us in the buff."

Traci shook her head and laughed. "Okay, I give. What is SFB?"

"I'm not telling."

"And how am I supposed to figure that out?"

He shrugged. "Ollie did, I guess he just understands me better than you do."

"Then maybe you should be with him."

"Trust me, if he slimmed down a bit and shaved that back he might give you a run for your money."

Traci shivered. "Okay, now I've got that image stuck in my head."

Jerry grimaced. "I know, it's disturbing. I went too far with that one, now I can't shake it either. Next time stop me before the jokes go out of control."

"Trust me," Traci said as she leaned down to kiss him lightly on the forehead. "If I had know you were going there I would have."

Just then his phone started to ring. "Damn, I thought I put that thing on vibrate."

"Are you going to get that?"

Jerry picked it up and checked it before putting it back on the nightstand. "No, it's not important and it's almost midnight."

Traci looked at him carefully. "You've been ignoring calls all day. Is it your ex?"

Jerry sighed. "Yeah. She's been leaving messages since yesterday, I just don't want it to mess up our weekend."

"Don't worry about it Jerry. I'm good. Call her back it might be important."

"You know what, she can wait until tomorrow. If it was that important she would have sent me a text cursing me out and demanding I call her, not afraid to express herself that one. But I appreciate the fact that you wouldn't mind my calling her. That's reason fifteen why I love you, you're a reasonable, rational woman."

Traci laughed. "Oh the infamous list of reasons why you love me."

"Only the top 100, there are so many more reasons than that."

"They're probably all sexual."

"Seriously, have you met me? Of course a decent chunk of them are sexual, but not all of them, not even half of them. Most of them are about your heart of gold, keen mind and winning personality."

"Good to know."

"All sexual? You think so little of me Trace, it really hurts."

"Aww my poor baby. How can I make it up to you?

He grinned and began tugging at her pants again. "One more hour of naked time?"

"Thirty minutes."

Jerry reached over and pulled her down under him. "I can work with that."

Traci helped him pull off her pants. "I bet you can."

* * *

><p>Jerry pulled the car up in front of Leo's school. He was having an absolutely fabulous morning, the best. He had started his day with Traci in his bed and an excellent round of lazy just woke up sex before she had to get up and get ready for work. Then after she was gone he and Leo went out for breakfast.<p>

"So," He said glancing up at the rearview mirrior. "We still need to come up with a Christmas present for your Mom."

"I already know what I'm going to give her," Leo said.

Jerry looked back at him suspiciously. "What?"

"A paperweight," Leo said with a grin.

"You little traitor. A rock, you're giving your Mom a rock?"

Leo started to giggle. "You said she'd think it was perfect."

"That's low Leo. I can't believe you'd do that to me, I thought we were cool. I mean who was there for you when your Mom said nachos or popcorn, who stood up for you and said that you should have both?"

Leo shrugged. "You, but she still made me choose."

"Not the point Leo, I stood up for you, I had your back. And then when you choose Nachos I got the popcorn and let you sneak and eat most of it. Didn't I?"

Leo nodded. Out of the corner or his eye Jerry spotted the crossing guard walking over to the car, probably to remind him that this was a drop off zone and he needed to move the car. Without looking up he flashed his badge. The guard backed off.

"You like doing that don't you?" Leo asked.

Jerry grinned broadly. "You have no idea my friend, it cracks me up the way your Mom always apologizes if it takes two extra seconds to get your seatbelt off. Me, I have no problem sitting here all day cleaning my fingernails, enjoying a cup of coffee and reading the paper, with my feet on the dashboard to boot. Your crossing guard enjoys bossing around parents and students. I enjoy frustrating him."

"Mommy says it's an abuse of power."

"Which one, bossing people around or messing around with a power hungry civilian police employee? Doesn't matter, Mommy is a much better person than both him and I, but I'm okay with that. Anyway, so now do you really think it's fair if on Christmas morning when we open gifts you hand your Mom some rock and she starts getting all emotional and hugs you and then I hand her…. nothing, or some lame gift."

"Not a rock, a _paperweight,_" Leo corrected him.

"Forgive me, some _painted_ rock. I thought we were in this together, but noooo you want to leave me hanging."

"You've got nothing Jerry, no gift and no ideas."

"I know, but I'm getting close, I can feel it."

"Are we going to be at your place Christmas morning?" Leo asked.

Jerry paused for a moment. He hadn't really thought about it, he guessed he was assuming. Good question. They should be at his place Christmas morning, he wanted them there, it totally made sense that they would be there, but maybe Traci had some other plans. What other plans could she possibly have? She'd come up with something just to teach him a lesson about assuming. He'd invite them offically.

He turned around in his seat so he could look Leo in the eye. "Do you want to be at my place Christmas morning?"

"Are we going to have a tree?" Leo asked.

"Sure, or course we're going to have a tree." Damn they were going to have to get a tree, and he was going to have to buy lights, and decorations and stockings, stockings were good, with the names embroidered on them, Traci would love that. Maybe they'd do like some sort of party thing. INvite Traci's mom of course, Ollie and Zoe could come, and Frank and Noelle, and Sam of course, if McNally came he'd have to avoid inviting Callaghan, of course Traci would want McNally there, hey maybe he'd get points for encouraging a McNally/Swarek connection if he was the one who actually suggested to Traci that they should invite those two. Traci could invite the other Rookies even. Okay that was going a little too far, he was in love, not losing his mind, no the Wonder Twins and Gleek were a no no, well maybe a no no, he wasn't very good at actually saying no to Traci.

"Jerry, Jerry."

Jerry pulled himself out of his thoughts. "What?"

"I said if we have a tree it would be cool to have Christmas with you."

"It will be cool having Christmas with you too. You kid are one of my favorite people."

Leo smiled at him. "I guess we need to get Mommy's present soon then, so we'll have it ready."

"That's what I'm talking about buddy. The power of positive thinking. We will find the perfect gift."

"Okay. Can I paint a rock just in case I need a back-up gift though?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll even help you out, you can write something like Number One Mom on it. She'll love that."

"World's Best Mommy. I wrote it on her card on her birthday, made her cry."

Jerry gave Leo a look of appreciation. "You really do have game there buddy, don't you? World's Best Mommy it is, but only if we don't find a great gift from the two of us

"Jerry, you're the best."

Jerry smirked at him. "See all that 'I'm cute as a button' charm stuff doesn't work on me. Absolutely no effect. Your powers are wasted here. Get out of the car before someone I know sees me behind the wheel."

Leo laughed and hopped out slamming the door behind him.

Jerry sat and watched Leo run into the building, before pulling away from the curb. He gave the crossing guard a jaunty salute as he drove off. Okay, it was a bit of an abuse of power, but somehow he couldn't find it in him to feel guilty. Just then his phone rang. He glanced down at it and smiled.

"Hey you."

"Hey. Everything go okay?" Traci asked.

"Checking up on me? I'm offended. Yes I managed to fed and dress him and get him to school on time."

Traci laughed. "I knew you would. I wasn't calling to check up on you. I was calling to thank you and tell you I love you."

Jerry smiled. "I love you too Trace."

"Are you going to be able to pick up the stuff on the grocery list I left?"

"Yeah not a problem, but you know I can't swear that I'll be able to swing home for dinner, you know I might catch a case."

"We'll play it by ear, and then maybe when you get home tonight after your shift we can make the most of the small window of time before I pass out on you."

Jerry laughed. Just then another call beeped in. Jerry checked the phone, Alli. Okay, enough was enough, he gave up, he had to admit her timing was comically on point when it came to ruining a moment.

"Babe, I'm going to take this, it's Alli, I can't duck her anymore. I'll see you later if you're at the station when I get in okay."

"Okay. Thanks again. Tell your wife I said hi."

"That wasn't even a little funny," he said before switching to the other line. "What's up Al?"

"Don't call me Al, you know I hate that." Her annoyance with him was apparent in her voice.

"My apologies, Allison Marie Barber nee Vandenlangenberg what can I do for you?" Jerry said with a chuckle.

"You sound like you're in a good mood."

"I tell ya can't get anything past you. What's up?"

"I've been trying to get a hold of you all weekend."

"Sorry about that, I was pretty busy."

"I've decided that I definitely want to put the house on the market."

"Really? Okay that's fine by me. So what do we do now?"

"I've already been looking into getting a real estate lawyer for when we're ready to close, and we need to work out a few things like are we going to use an agent or just do it privately, who's going to show the house, all of that. We should probably get together and go over some of this stuff."

Jerry glanced down at his watch. He really did have plenty of time before his shift, but he had wanted to swing by a couple of car dealers and check out a few of his top choices, maybe even get in a test ride or two. Most importantly though he was in a good mood, an excellent mood, and he wanted to enjoy it for a while. He wasn't in the mood for Alli today.

"Alli look. I'm at work right now," He lied smoothly. "I've really got a lot on my plate right now, this is a pretty packed week for me. I'll call you okay, let you know when I'm free."

"Okay, but it has to be soon, we need to move on this, maybe I could stop by the station."

"No," Jerry said quickly. "Not a good idea. I'll call you."

"Oh, that's right, the Rookie. Don't want me to meet her, or you don't want her to meet me?"

"If you want to know the truth neither option thrills me, it's unnecessary. I'll call you, soon."

"Whatever." Alli said before hanging up.

Jerry grinned. That was surprisingly easy. He checked his watch. It was still pretty early, he had time to pick-up his dry cleaning and run to the market for Trace before heading over to the car dealership. He really needed to sell the Mustang and get a new car. All jokes aside driving his girlfriend's car had to be it's own private circle of Hell.

* * *

><p>Alli pulled around into the Division 15 parking lot. Jerry was really being evasive, ducking and dodging her like this, all she wanted was to sit down and talk. Stopping by the station wasn't exactly her first choice, too many people who weren't exactly fans of hers there, and she knew it made Jerry uncomfortable to bring his personal life on the job, especially anything involving her, but it was his own fault really. If he had of picked up her calls this weekend, or taken the time to arrange a meet time with her she wouldn't feel forced to corner him at his job. She spotted the Mustang parked in the employee section of the lot. Well at least he really was here and not out on a case.<p>

She parked her car and checked her reflection in the mirror. This could be fun. She could watch Jerry squirm a bit, and maybe she'd even get to see his Rookie.


	10. Chapter 10

_Happy Holidays to all. Sorry for the insane delay in posting this chapter, but sometimes life messes with the creative process, lol. I haven't given up this story, I'm still committed to it, so enjoy, and Chapter 11 will follow as soon as possible._

* * *

><p>Traci was in a good mood, a great mood even, and she was determined to remain that way, despite the best efforts of her partner, white shirt in training Officer Gail "Buzzkill" Peck. Gail could whine, babble and complain as much as she wanted about her recent problems with Chris, but it wasn't going to bring Traci down, in fact, she was feeling uncharacteristically uninterested in the whole thing.<p>

For someone who usually played things very close Gail was certainly being quite talkative, but it was all going over Traci's head. It sounded something like "Big misunderstanding….Wonk Wonk Wonk Wonk…Dov…Wonk Wonk…pain pills… Wonk… talking… Wonk… Confessed… Wonk… love.

It probably had all the makings of a situation that should inspire some level of caring on Traci's part, it really did. Chris, Gail and Dov weren't just her colleagues, they were her friends. At least Chris and Dov were her friends. Gail was more of an… sort of like a…. something akin to a… Dear God, Gail was her friend, when the hell did that happen? So that made them all her friends, and she should be feeling more sympathetic about this whole situation, but it just seemed a little much to her one big pile of unnecessary bull. Chris was being uncharacteristically assholey (Was that even a word?) Gail was being uncharacteristically wimpy, and Dov was being, well at least Dov was being Dov. Only he would be pining after his best friend's girl when he had badass Bomb Squad Sue hanging around all into him. The whole situation was mildly disturbing to Traci, so she had decided to block it out. It was downright disturbing, like the universe was unaligned or something. Plus, whiny self-pitying doormat was not a good look for Gail. Bitchy Snarky Gail, now that was the girl she had grown to love.

So all in all, on a day when her own world was looking particularly bright and shiny, Traci didn't feel like being brought down by the convoluted and confused relationship garbage her friends seemed to have gotten themselves into. Besides, it's not like Gail was asking her for advice or anything. She was just playing Debbie Downer, and it was becoming seriously annoying.

Traci pulled the squad card into the lot. It had been an interesting morning, it seemed like it was All City Smack Around Your Partner Day, they were bringing in a perp from their third domestic disturbance call in as many hours.

The perp in question began banging on the divider, again. "Hey, can I go to the bathroom now? I'm serious, I can't hold it anymore."

Gail unfastened her seatbelt and turned around in her seat snarling. "Shut it Wanda, and I swear, if you pee in my squad car I'll make you lick it up."

"Nice one Peck," Traci said with a laugh as she swung out of the car and opened up the back door to let Wanda out. Apparently the Snark Queen wasn't dead, she was just in remission. She led the handcuffed and seemingly harmless looking young woman out of the car and around to where Gail was standing. "Why don't you take Wanda here into booking and I'll get started on the paperwork? Oh, and Wanda, the next time you think it's a good idea to start chasing your husband around with a butcher knife, think again." Traci added as she helped Gail lead their handcuffed and cranky perp into booking.

Trace was still shaking her head as she walked through the station and thought back on the image of pulling up to the house and seeing Wanda, all five foot nothing, 100lbs soaking wet of her, brandishing a butcher knife and chasing her scared witless six foot five two hundred and sixty pound husband around their yard. It would have been a lot funnier if Wanda hadn't proceeded to fling the knife in their direction. The little witch had pretty good aim and one hell of a throwing arm, if they hadn't have jumped out of the way…

Traci made her way over to her computer and glanced over in the direction of the front desk. Someone was waiting to be seen, but there was no one at the desk. She struggled for a moment to remember who was on desk duty today. Oh yeah, Peters, the man with the worlds weakest bladder. She glanced around for a moment, no sign of him. Oh well, she thought. She'd consider it her good deed for the day. She walked up to the front desk, and fixed a smile on her face.

"Can I help you?"

The woman waiting flashed her an impatient look. "I'm looking for Detective Barber. I need to speak with him."

"Detective Barber isn't available right now. Would you like to leave him a message, or can another Detective assist you? Is this regarding a case?"

"No, I really need to speak to Jerry. Can you just let him know his wife is here."

Several things immediately occurred to Traci. First off, she realized that she had really matured in the past few years and was pretty impressed with herself. She was amazingly controlled and professional since she didn't jump over the desk and bitch slap Allison for saying wife instead of ex-wife, since obviously the irritating little chick was Allison unless Jerry had another wife he had neglected to mention out there somewhere. Secondly, Jerry had annoyingly good taste in ex-wives, the woman was beautiful. Not cute, or nice looking or attractive, no, that would be tolerable. The former Mrs. Barber was really irritatingly, big eyes, perfectly clear skin, ridiculously high cheekbones, cover of Vogue type, beautiful. Bitch. No wonder Jerry hadn't realized she wasn't the poster child for mental stability, he was slapped stupid by her looks. Thirdly, no woman should ever have face her boyfriend's ridiculously beautiful ex-wife wearing a mannish polyester blend uniform, with a frigging Kevlar vest on top to boot. It was downright cruel. Though having a gun strapped to her hip did have some possible benefits Traci reflected as she tapped the hilt of her gun absentmindedly.

* * *

><p>Oliver was determined to kiss Jerry the second he came in this afternoon. Johnson had said spending the weekend in the bucket with Epstein and Diaz had been like a never-ending hell. To be honest, it wasn't that Oliver really had anything against the two rooks, it was just that they were better experienced in smaller more manageable doses, and not together, when one was outnumbered by them. Jerry had really helped him to dodge a bullet there, and he was truly grateful.<p>

Oliver walked up to Sam who was pouring himself a cup of coffee at the beverage station.

"Come on Swarek, let's stop putting this off and get back on patrol. I want to pick up some lunch."

"Didn't we just have burritos like an hour ago?"

"That was a late brunch, it doesn't count."

"You do realize that you eat like a man three times your size right?" Sam took a sip of his coffee and then immediately began choking on it. He quickly recovered and cursed under his breath. "Aw hell, it can't be."

"What are you talking about?"

Sam was staring off over Oliver's shoulder. "It is. Would you look at that, Allison Barber or is she using Vansmander-whatever again. She's like Athlete's foot, or jock itch, you can never quite get rid of it. You know I thought I heard the demons in hell celebrating because the boss was out of the office."

Oliver's head snapped around. Sure enough Sam was right, it was Alli, standing at the desk. Oliver turned back to face Sam. "Wow, nice work with the figurative language, " he commented, "funny how it just flows out of your mouth when Jerry's life is about to be shot to shit."

"I guess I just needed the inspiration. What the hell was she doing here anyway?"

"I don't know. She and Jer are thinking about selling the house though. Last ties I guess."

"What she and Jerry? When the hell did she and Jerry become a she and Jerry again? I thought she had the decency to drown herself in the North Atlantic."

"Halifax, she went home to Halifax to stay with her folks. Now she's back, I guess. You never liked her did you?"

"What was to like? Oh yeah, remember having to help Jerry cover for the time she stole his gun, or during that dinner party she made him have and then she locked herself in the bathroom and broke the mirror swearing she was going to slit her wrists? Or my personal favorite, the twenty-three stitches I got from that damn flying vase. Yeah, heck of a girl, she was so damn likable."

"Come on Sam, she was going through stuff, she had problems, that wasn't her fault, and it's not like it was twenty three stitches in the same spot, there were a few different cuts."

"I want you think about what's wrong with that sentence for a minute and get back to me when you've figure it out. She was trouble from the start Ollie, and she screwed with his head bad, almost cost him his job not to mention adding to my personal collection of war wounds. Besides, as far as I know Bitch is not a mental health diagnosis."

"Ouch, a little harsh there," Oliver said wincing.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Oh stop Shaw. You know I'm right. Her natural personality is just plain wrong, the only medication that works on her brand of psycho is rat poison.

Oliver snickered. "Honestly, did you just sleep through the department's mandatory sensitivity training? Just brought a pillow and a blanket or something and curled up and zoned out for the whole thing?"

"I'm a really sensitive guy, chock full of compassion, empathy and understanding. For example, right now I'm putting myself in Jerry's shoes and I'm feeling a great deal of compassion for him, since Nash is standing at the desk talking to Hell Cat."

Oliver's head snapped around again, how the hell did he miss that, sure enough Nash was at the desk chatting away with Alli. Damn.

"Oh man. Okay ok, I got Alli, you get Nash."

Sam looked at Oliver questioningly. "Why would I involve myself in this?"

"Because Jerry is your friend and nothing good can come of this."

Sam looked back over at the two women talking and then turned back to Oliver. "I don't know," he said with a shrug. "I'm willing to bet a years salary that if Alli steps out of line Nash will wipe the floor with her. Can't say I would be unhappy to see that."

"Look at it this way, if Nash gets pissed off and dumps Jerry he might wind up back with Alli, and then you'd have to deal with her again how does that suit you?"

"He isn't that stupid, but I get the point. You go break that little gab session over there up and talk to the former Mrs. Barber and I'll chat up the future Officer Mrs. Detective Barber," Sam said with a chuckle.

"Oh come on," he added when he caught Oliver's surprised expression. "You don't think it's coming? You know Barber. He's done, it's over, he has visions of SUV's and semidetached three bedroom townhouses, with a yard for the kids, dancing in his head. Plus I'm betting that Alli sensed that Jerry might possibly be moving on, and had to fly in on her broom and try to wreck it."

Oliver shook his head and hurried over to the front desk. As he approached Traci looked over and noticed him. She smiled brightly and said. "Ma'am, I'm sure Officer Shaw will be glad to assist you. Officer Shaw, Detective Barber's _wife_ was looking for him, I have to get back to my paperwork. Officer Peters must have stepped away for a moment."

Oh damn. Oliver thought to himself. Barber was a dead man. He smiled weakly at Traci and watched her walk off for a second before turning his attention to Alli.

"Hey, uhm hey, Alli. Good to see you, you're looking well."

"Hi Oliver, how have you been?

"I'm good, everything's good. What can I do for you?"

"I was looking for Jerry."

"Did he say he was going to meet you here or something?

"No I was just trying to catch up with him, we need to talk."

"Well Alli sorry, but he's not around, and you know this isn't the best place to talk to him. It gets pretty crazy around here."

Allison looked pointedly around the quiet station. And raised an eyebrow.

Oliver looked around embarrassed. "Well it's dead right now, but you know it's usually a madhouse. But anyway like I said, Jerry isn't here."

"His car is in the lot Oliver."

Oliver looked at her in confusion for a moment before it hit him, damn, Nash must have driven the Mustang in, aw double damn. "Alli he's really not here. He doesn't have his car today."

"So then who has it?"

"Uhm, no one, he just didn't use it, I guess."

"Wow, the girlfriend drove Stella in? I'm impressed."

Oliver winced. Allison was a lot of things, but she was never stupid. Actually she had always been dangerously perceptive, one of the things she and Nash had in common. Jerry had always had a thing for smart women.

* * *

><p>Sam watched as Oliver took over for Traci with Alli. He caught the slightly overly bright gleam of her smile. Oh she knew, she had to know. Nash was nobody's dummy and Alli was never subtle.<p>

"Hey Nash," he called as she was about to walk past her. "You got a minute?"

Traci came over to him eyeing him warily. "What's up Sam?"

Sam gave her the once over trying to determine for certain if she knew whom she was just talking to and how it went. "Nothing, just wondering, how are things going?"

Traci smiled at him. "What things?"

Sam narrowed his eyes, she was being coy and Nash didn't do coy. "The usual things."

"Things are fine," she answered.

"Anything interesting happen today?" He asked eyeing her carefully.

"Same old same old," she answered eyeing him just as carefully.

"So."

"So."

"Nothing huh?" He asked.

Traci looked him dead in the eye and said. "She introduced herself as his wife."

Sam let a low whistle. "Well alrighty then. You know, I offered it to Jerry a few years ago, but he wasn't interested, but just in case you need it a friend of mine has a boat, we could go out to the middle of the lake, weigh the body down, dump it in problem solved. I'm just saying."

"Good to know."

"Well then, you have a good day." He said with a nod

"You too," she responded as she walked away.

Sam watched her walk off and shook his head. That went well. He absentmindedly reached for his phone when he heard it ringing.

"Swarek. Speak," He barked.

"Yo Sammy. Seriously, best morning ever," Jerry chirped cheerfully.

Oh man, Sam thought. It was going to be brutal.

"I figured out what I'm getting Trace for Christmas, it came to me thirty minutes ago, an epiphany of sorts. Oh yeah and on another unrelated note, Oh My Freaking God I just test-drove the Lexus RX 350, I want it, in Matador red, with the tan leather interior, definitely the tan leather interior, it's so soft and supple, I'd say soft as a baby's bottom, but that's sort of creepy if you think about it. My sports car phase is over, I hate sports cars, sports cars suck, I like luxurious take all the fun out of driving and make you feel like you aren't even on the road cars. I like having a seat that heats up my behind and twelve speakers with a rear navigation camera, let me repeat, a rear navigation camera. Or the Acura MDX, in Crystal Black Pearl, didn't see it in red, and it's more of a beige leather interior, but still sweet as hell. I'm going to have to put you back out on the street corner for a little while to make the money to pay for it, but you don't mind do you? You were always my best ho."

It was worse than he thought, _luxury_ SUV's and semidetached three bedroom townhouses. "Yeah Pimp Daddy slow down, you've got a problem."

"I know, I'm in love with a car I can't afford, two of them in fact, and I'm about to go meet a third, though at some point I should start checking safety ratings, I mean I'm buying this car because of...well never mind why I'm buying it, I've become an SUV whore, I love them all, I'm faithless."

"Listen Soccer Mom, first of all I will refuse to acknowledge that I even know you let alone consider you a friend if you start cruising around in some upper middle class stay at home mom car of choice, secondly you have bigger problems than your rapidly declining taste in cars, like the fact that not even two minutes ago your devil spawn ex-wife and your 'damn how'd you get so lucky' girlfriend were standing at the front desk comparing notes on you."

There was a long pause before Jerry asked warily, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Apparently Alley Cat felt the need to come down to the station for some reason, and Nash was at the desk," Sam responded.

Jerry swallowed. "Please tell me you are lying to me, that this is some kind of sick joke or something. Please."

"No can do my friend, once again just when you think you're done with her she pops back up. She's like Athlete's foot, or jock itch, smelly, irritating and you can never quite get rid of her or keep her under control without proper medication."

"Geez, what's with you and Traci and the fungus references lately? Where are they now?"

"Oliver moved in for a rescue and Traci stood down. What the hell is Alli doing back anyway? She must have smelled the scent of your blossoming happiness in the air and decided to roll up pluck it and stomp on it before it could fully bloom."

"It kind of sucks how your metaphors are more on point when it comes to my life imploding."

"You caught that too huh? Oliver was pretty impressed."

"What's happening now?"

"Not totally sure, you're going to have to ask Shaw, but Nash told me that Alli introduced herself as your wife."

Jerry gagged. "Oh yeah, I can feel my lunch coming right back up. Hey buddy, do you want to tell Frank that I'm not feeling well, don't think I can make it in?"

"Isn't Officer Girlfriend staying at your place all week? How are you going to avoid her?"

Jerry sighed. "She's not the one I'm trying to avoid."

"Man, there you go again, hiding from the missus, brings back memories, good times, good times."

"The _ex_ missus, and I'm not hiding, I'm strategically avoiding."

"And thanks to your strategic avoiding she's here in the barn chatting it up with your girlfriend. How's that strategy working for you?"

"I'm ten minutes away. Did Trace really look upset?"

"Actually she held her own. I'm really sort of disappointed, I was kind of hoping that Evilina Mistress of the Dark would say the wrong thing and Nash would have to take her down. She was tapping on her gun though, so I haven't given up hope. Maybe I should let your girlfriend know that no matter what goes down I'm willing to testify that it was self defense, it's the least I could do for a fellow officer."

"And you get on me for coming up with names for Dex, listen to you. I'm nine minutes away Swarek, don't start anything."

"Yeah, I'll be waiting with baited breath."

* * *

><p>"So which one is she? Alli took a quick look around the station, for a second her eyes settled on a short slim unfamiliar blonde, she narrowed her gaze contemplating. "I'm guessing not the Gwen Stefani look alike. She's cute, but you can smell the insecurity on her from here, Not Jerry's type at all."<p>

Oliver cleared his throat and avoided glancing in either direction. "Alli, do you want me to give Jerry a message?"

"Come on Oliver, you're no fun, just give me a hint. It wasn't Bambi out in front of the station was it? I didn't recognize her either, she's a rookie right?"

"Bambi?"

"Brown hair, very pretty, deer caught in the headlights expression, but I just didn't get either the _happily involved, _or the_ single mom_ vibe off of her. It wasn't Officer Friendly who was just talking with me was it? She didn't even bat an eyelash when I identified myself."

Good for Nash. "Alli, I'm not getting into this with you."

"Oliver, Zoë already told me that Jerry has gotten himself hooked up with some sweet young rookie, I'm just wondering who she is."

"So Allison I have to go, I'll let Jerry know you stopped by. Any message?"

Alli smiled at him mischievously. "Really Ollie, you used to be so much more fun. Just, tell him to call me. I really need to see him."

Oliver sighed as she walked off. Damn, he really needed something to eat.

* * *

><p>Jerry gripped the steering wheel. He was pissed, and getting more pissed with each second that passed. He should have known better that to try to brush Allie off. How could he have forgotten how confrontational she could get when she felt ignored or pushed aside, but really come down to the station, that was ballsy even for her, and to introduce herself to Traci as his wife? That was just plain wrong. He really was starting to feel a little ill.<p>

He pulled into the parking lot and immediately spotted Alli walking toward the visitor's section. At least she was out of the station he thought with relief as he honked the horn to get her attention. She turned and stopped when she realized it was him.

He pulled the car over into the first available spot and hopped out rushing over to her.

"Alli. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Nice car Jerry," she said sarcastically.

He winced glancing back at the car instinctively before turning back to his ex. "What are you doing here Alli. I said I'd call you."

Alli smiled. "You also lied and said you were at work."

"I said I was working, and I was," he responded lamely. How did she manage to get him on he defensive, he was the injured party here, he was the justifiably angry one, _she_ had come to _his _job to stir up trouble.

"You said you were at work, and you weren't. We really need to go over this stuff if we want to sell the house. We have to work together."

Jerry let out a frustrated breath and ran his fingers through his hair. "Alli. Look, I think it's just better if we handle this through a broker and the lawyers."

"Why Jerry? We are both adults. I mean yes we had a rough patch, but there is no reason we can't talk to each other and work on something that's to our mutual benefit together. Why should we have to pay all of those fees for no reason? I'll handle selling the house, we'll just bring on a lawyer to handle the closing and then everything will be fine. We just have to sit down and iron out the details.

Jerry sighed. 'Rough patch?' She called two years of unrelenting hell a rough patch? He just couldn't win with her. She was just going to hammer away at him until he gave in. It was easier to just let her have her way with this one. "Fine Alli. But I was telling the truth. This is a bad week for me. "I'll stop by on Friday and we'll work everything out."

"So what are you doing for Christmas?"

Jerry looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"Christmas. You know, big holiday, coming up in a month or so people exchange gifts. I'm going to stay in town, so I was trying to figure out what to do."

Jerry had a sudden flash of his last Christmas with Alli. He was on duty and she had gotten it into her head that she was going to make a big dinner, but then she got distracted and spent day painting in her studio in the sunroom upstairs, _after_ she put a duck in the oven. She didn't hear the smoke detectors go off because she was listening to her Ipod. He had come home to be greeted by a house full of smoke and the fire department. Good times. "I have plans."

"With the girlfriend and her kid? I'm guessing Officer Friendly right." Alli said. "The one at the desk. I dismissed her at first, she's a pretty cool customer, didn't give anything away, but then I realized Oliver was a little too eager to talk to me, so that she wouldn't have to. So I'm thinking of doing a little something. Inviting some people over, you can bring Officer Friendly if you want I can meet her officially."

Jerry chose to completely ignore the invitation. "We're selling the house Alli, you have stuff all over the place and you want to entertain? Not a good plan."

"I'm renting an apartment. I told you that, didn't I? I've checked out a couple of places. I wanted to move out of the house before we started showing it. I took the job at OCAD. I start after the new year. I told you that right?"

Jerry gave her a pained smile. His head hurt and his stomach was knotting up again. He really did think he was coming down with something. "No, you didn't tell me any of that. So you're staying in town?"

"Well at least for a semester. I'm trying to get my bearings back."

"Great, well good luck with that."

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"Completely genuine Allie. You know I want the best for you."

"You'd just rather it not be in the same city."

Jerry sighed. "Allie. If you want to stay in Toronto then I fully support your being here." Where the hell did that come from? He didn't support her staying here, he was completely against it. "I just figured you'd want to stay closer to family. Where you have a support system, that's all." That was better.

"You're family."

"Of course I'm here for you." Dear lord, Jerry thought. Who the hell just said that? Did he say that? What the hell was he smoking? "I mean I'm not abandoning you, I just can't be there for you all the time, not like you parents or your sisters could back in NS."

"I'll be fine Jer. It's just for a few months to see how I feel. So Friday right."

"Yeah, Friday morning, before I go to work. I'll call you."

"Okay."

Jerry continued to stand there as Alli turned on her heel and walked over to her car and climbed in. He watched her pull off. He had felt himself being pulled back into her drama and couldn't for the life of him figure out how to put the breaks on it. It was going to be a long few months if Alli was really planning on staying for a whole semester. He walked back to Traci's car and climbed in so he could park it in the right section of the lot.

* * *

><p>Jerry spotted Traci heading down the hall and quickly caught up with her.<p>

"Hey," he whispered as he fell into step next to her.

Traci turned to him in surprise. "Hey to you too."

"You got a minute?" He asked nervously.

"Sure."

He maneuvered her into an interrogation room closing the door behind them.

"I am so sorry about that, your having to deal with Alli."

Traci laughed. "That was quick. Who called you, Swarek or Shaw?"

"I called Swarek to talk, and he told me Alli had stopped in, so I came in early. He told me you spoke to her at the desk. I'm so sorry you had to deal with her."

"She was a bit much. Introduced herself as your wife, said she was looking for you."

Jerry groaned. "She didn't? Really?"

Traci nodded.

"She's just trying to stir up trouble, and figure out who my girlfriend is. Apparently it's her new obsession."

"I figured. I was pretty pissed of for a minute there, at her, not you."

"When she gets fixated on something she's like dog with a bone."

"How are you going to deal with it?"

"I don't know. The more she knows the more involved she feels. I want her involved in as little of my life as possible. I'm hoping that after the house is sold she'll just lose interest in me and my life. I think it's just something for her to fixate on, instead of focusing on her own life."

"Well you need to do something about Jerry. I don't know the woman, but it seems to me like today was just a warm up, stirring the pot if you know what I mean. She's not going to just go away."

"Oh you seem to know her pretty well, that's exactly what it was."

"She had no idea I was your girlfriend, at least I didn't tell her."

"She guessed, she's pretty good at reading people and situations. I wanted to avoid that. I'd rather have her annoying me than annoying you. Alli can be a lot to handle."

"I could tell. I'm guessing when you talked to her on the phone this morning you tried to avoid seeing her and she took it upon herself to come in."

"Yup. I told her I was too busy, hard at work. I guess she figured if the the mountain won't come to Mohamed…"

Traci gave him a sympathetic look. "You should have seen the look on Shaw's face. I thought he was going to have a heart attack when he came rushing over to the desk to talk to her. Sam too, tried to feel me out and see what kind of damage control needed to be done. You have good friends."

"Yeah, I do. Are we okay?"

Traci sighed. "We're fine Jerry. It wasn't like you did anything. It wasn't that big a deal, it just caught me off guard."

Jerry grinned and pulled her close for a quick kiss. "I swear, I am so in love with you, how many girlfriends can meet the crazy ex-wife and say it wasn't a big deal. You're like perfect."

"It sure took you long enough to realize it," Traci answered with a laugh.

"So, what do you think about you, me and the munchkin spending Christmas together, tree, presents, the whole deal?"

Traci smiled at him. "That sounds nice, but you know we're both working Christmas Day, afternoon shift."

"I know, but then we're off for a week, the twenty-sixth through New Year's."

"Gotta love rotating schedules."

"Anyhow, I was thinking we should spend the holiday together. The three of us. Leo can spend Christmas morning with us, and then we'll drop him off to spend time that night with his Dad. Then we'll have a whole week to celebrate."

"What about my Mom?"

"She's going on that trip she was talking about."

"What trip?"

"She's been talking about it for the past two months Trace. She's going to Vegas with her friends."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"I listen when she talks, you should try it sometimes you could learn something. Though she does say you're hard headed, maybe that's the problem. She's leaving the twenty-seventh, so we'll spend time with her before she leaves,"

"When did you two become such good friends? I don't think I like the idea of the two of you sitting around talking about me."

"Trace," Jerry began patiently. "Your Mom adores me, thinks I'm the best thing to ever happen to you. Much better than what's his face. She says it all the time."

Traci narrowed her eyes and looked at him suspiciously. "We'll talk about this later and figure out the details, but right now some of us are on duty. I have to get back before Gail has a cow. I'll see you at home tonight okay."

Jerry smiled at her. "You said home."

"What?"

"You didn't call it my place, you said home."

"Slip of the tongue, I had a rough day," Traci said as she headed out of the door.

Jerry caught the door before it closed. "Freudian slip."

"Well don't let your wife hear you talking like that," Traci called over her shoulder.

"Seriously Nash that wasn't funny."

"It was a little funny."

Jerry watched as she disappeared around the corner. He was so damn lucky Traci was being great about this, but she was right. Things weren't settled with Alli, not by a long shot, and he had to figure out how to get things under control before they blew up in his face. He couldn't help but wonder if Sam's friend still had that boat.

* * *

><p><em>(<strong>Author's Note<strong>: For the record, please have a sense of humor, my cousin, who apparently has none, has been reading this for me and the first words out of her mouth were "Are they really going to kill off Alli and dump her off a boat? Traci and Jerry would never do that." It's a joke Kim.)_


	11. Chapter 11

_**December 1**_

Andy pulled out her coat and slammed her locker shut. It had been a long night. She was seriously looking forward to a little liquid pick me up. She glanced over at Traci who was sitting on the bench pulling on her boots.

"So, is she really that good looking?"

Traci groaned. "How many times are you going to make me repeat myself? The bitch is gorgeous, it's insane. I mean I've got her beat on the hotness scale, I'm way hotter, she's too skinny to be truly hot, but she kicks my ass if we're competing for the cover of Vogue."

Andy looked at her thoughtfully. "Are we talking British Vogue or Italian Vogue, because Italian Vogue has some serious hotties on the cover, where as British Vogue goes more of the ethereal type, you know what I mean?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"What?" Andy shrugged in response to Traci's questioning look. "So, I've had a lot of time on my hands, I've been reading a lot of magazines."

"Italian Vogue?"

"I don't know, sometimes I just like looking at the pretty pictures."

Traci stood up and grabbed her coat out of her locker. "See, your problem is that you need to get laid," she said slamming the locker door closed.

Andy shook her head as they headed out the locker room. "And your problem is that you need to learn about personal boundaries. Anyway, my point is I'm sure this Allison person can't be more beautiful than you."

Traci reached over and hugged her. "You know McNally sometimes you know exactly what to say."

"And he's been hanging out with her lately?"

Traci playfully shoved Andy away from her. "And then sometimes you say exactly the wrong thing." They headed into the parking lot towards Traci's car. "They haven't been hanging out. He went to see her a few days after she popped up to the station to go over the arrangements for selling their house, and since then they've talked on the phone a couple of times. She moved into her new apartment last week and he played sick to avoid having to help her. It was really kind of funny."

"If you say so," Andy answered as she climbed into the passenger seat.

"Yes I say so. Come to think of it, it's pretty impressive how quickly she got an apartment; she just set her mind to it, found a place and moved right in. Funny how that works."

"It's a rental. I'm looking to buy."

"Did I say anything?" Traci asked innocently as she started up her car.

"You were implying very articulately. And it's not like I'm in your way, you are never home anymore. What you and Jerry can't ever stay at your place?"

"Jerry is still recovering from the time you saw him sneaking out of the bathroom damn near naked."

"He had a towel on."

"A very small towel."

"Well he has nothing to be embarrassed about. He's nothing to sneeze at. Have to admit, after that I gained a new appreciation for him."

Traci grinned. "I know, I have no complaints. Please just stop asking him 'how's it hanging?' You're killing him."

"The man has no sense of humor," Andy said with a laugh. "So what are you two up to tonight?"

"We're meeting up at the Penny for the Nash/Barber Christmas 2011 Planning Summit."

"Come again?"

"You know me, Jerry and Leo are spending Christmas together right?"

Andy nodded.

"Well, we've run into a couple of snags over exactly how the first Nash/Barber holiday spectacular is going to go, so Jerry and I are going to have a sit down meeting on neutral territory to negotiate terms."

"You're kidding me."

"Hey, Christmas is a very touchy subject with couples, people take their family traditions very seriously."

Andy scoffed. "What people?"

"People who weren't raised by wolves like you were."

"Surly drunken wolves," Andy corrected. "You can't leave out the drunken and surly part."

"Anyway, many a relationship has been destroyed by conflicting Christmas traditions, we're going to put everything on the table and reach a compromise before it gets to that point."

"What a load of bull. What couples do you know that split up over Christmas traditions? Name one, just one. What is there to fight over? What goes on the top of the tree?"

"An angel of course."

"An angel?" Andy looked at her in mock horror. "What kind of heathenness horde of barbarians raised you? Everyone knows you put a star on the top of the tree. It's like I don't even know you anymore."

"You aren't funny. This is serious, what if he wants an artificial tree? I can't picture spending one Christmas, let alone the rest of my life with a man who uses an artificial tree."

"The rest of your life, interesting."

"Or worse, what if he's a tree flocker?"

Andy shuddered. "Tree flocking is just plain wrong, I hate tree flocking, we get enough real snow, who wants to put fake snow on their tree."

"You really like saying that word don't you?"

"Flocking, Flocking, Flocking. Who the flock furiously and festively flocks a freaking fir tree. Say that three times fast, I dare you."

"Oh, I get it, you don't just need to get laid. You need to get laid repeatedly and well. Seriously, coming to an understanding as a couple about how you want to celebrate the holidays is very important. Everyone knows that the biggest tests of a relationship are sex, money, and Christmas."

Andy snorted. "Now you just made that one up. I don't think I've ever seen this side of you. You do know you are certifiably insane right? Were you this nutty last year? I don't remember all this craziness last Christmas, I really don't."

"I'm not crazy. I just want our first Christmas as a couple to go off smoothly. By the way, I've seen some fine flocking on festive flawlessly flocked firs."

"Oh flock off.

* * *

><p>"Okay, midnight mass is non-negotiable," Traci said firmly as she took a sip of her Appletini.<p>

Jerry nodded. "Sure, who am I to deny you your one chance a year to actually be a practicing Catholic."

"Not funny, and it's three times a year. You forgot Ash Wednesday and Easter."

"Oh that's right, I forgot. You are so devout, it's very sexy."

Traci grinned at him. "Shut the hell up. Maybe I'll be more religious this year. How about I give up sex for Lent?"

He took both of her hands in his. "I'll fully support you and I'll even give up sex _with you_ for Lent also."

"You think you're funny don't you?"

"I'm absolutely hilarious. So what type of Christmas tree."

"Fraiser of course, or it doesn't smell like Christmas."

"Oh hell no, Scots Pine."

"Well at least you aren't an artificial tree guy."

"Artificial? Never. I'm actually looking forward to intensely vacuuming the apartment after the holidays and still managing to find stray pine needles until sometime in August. That's half the fun. Well maybe five percent of the fun."

"Okay, okay, we'll just split the difference, Douglas Fir."

"I can do that. My parents always did it the German way, up Christmas Eve down on the Epiphany."

"You aren't German."

"No, but my dad was shall we say frugal, I'm guessing he got some fantastic deals buying the tree Christmas Eve."

"How very nice for him. I'll give you December 14th, Leo likes the tree up for awhile, and we're on the morning shift, so we can get it a soon as we get off. We'll take it down on January 7th."

"You have a bit of a bossy side. It's oddly sexy." Jerry took a long drink from his beer. "I feel like we should be in Geneva or something having this discussion, it's like a peace negotiation. Why aren't you writing any of this down? Don't we have to sign a treaty?"

Traci tapped her head. "It's all in here buddy. This is going to be great. We'll have the perfect tree, well as perfect as it can get without it being a Fraiser. We'll hang the wreaths and put garland up. I'll make my eggnog."

Jerry looked at her suspiciously. "Your eggnog, as in you're going through life with a personal tried and true eggnog recipe? Oh man, are you secretly one of those people who go all Martha Stewart from hell around the holidays running around with a glue gun and a baking tray in each hand? I want you know, if I catch you making a Christmas village out of milk cartons and gum drops I'm breaking up with you."

* * *

><p>"Okay, just tilt it a little more to the right." Traci said eyeing the large Christmas tree critically.<p>

Sam leaned slightly forward on the stepladder and adjusted the tree while Jerry, who was squatting at the base of the tree held onto the trunk and shifted the tree stand.

"Like this?" Sam asked.

"No, No, back to the left just a tiny, tiny bit. Okay, now right. Now just a touch to the…oh, oh just like that just like…okay back to the right a little."

"Sam!" Jerry groused from his spot on the floor. "I just got stuck in, the eye with a frigging tree branch."

"What the hell are you complaining about?" Sam said. "You damn near knock me off the step ladder. Twice. How the hell did I get roped into helping you guys with this?"

"You had nothing to do after the morning shift and we needed someone to help carry the tree and a truck to transport it, plus you needed to feel loved and wanted. Love you, glad to have you here." Jerry quipped before Sam adjusted the tree again and he got a mouthful of pine.

"It looks perfect just like that." Traci said excitedly. "Hold it still Sam, Jerry tighten the screws."

Jerry muttered under his breath as he finished tightening the screws

Traci stepped back "It looks beautiful. I can't wait until we pick up Leo and decorate it tonight."

Sam came down from the stepladder and offered Jerry a hand up off the floor. Both men came to stand by Traci and admire their handiwork.

"Not bad." Sam said grudgingly.

Jerry wrapped an arm around Traci's waist and kissed her on the cheek. "It looks great. A Scots pine would have looked better, but this looks great."

"A _Fraiser_ would have looked better, but what can you do." Sam said.

Traci gave Jerry an 'I told you so' look which he pointedly ignored.

"Would you guys like some eggnog?" Traci asked. "It's spiked. Oh and I made cookies"

"She made eggnog and cookies?" Sam asked in a whisper.

Jerry shrugged his shoulders. "It's her own nogging recipe," He whispered. "Whatcha gonna do? Actually it's pretty good, though there's a fruitcake in there I'm a little scared of. If she offers you some fruitcake run."

"I'd love some eggnog." Sam answered. "Just hold the nutmeg, and the rum and the eggnog and fill the glass with beer. Better yet, just give me the bottle of beer."

"You are such a Scrooge." Traci snapped.

"Yeah, bah humbug and all that jazz." Sam responded with a laugh. "You know the leopard print Santa hat is overkill." He added pointing to the hat she had been wearing since they left the station.

"You're just jealous that I didn't get you one." Traci shouted back over her shoulder.

"Yeah Nash, that's it exactly. You know me so well." Sam answered with a laugh as he slumped down into a chair. He looked over at Jerry and grinned. "So this is very cozy."

Jerry narrowed his eyes. "Don't start."

Sam looked at him innocently. "What starting? This is very cozy, quite nice, very domestic. Did she get you his and hers Christmas sweaters? You know, some nice red and green knit number with like Santa and the reindeer on the front. Oh, oh and that lights up and says Happy Christmas.""

"And plays jingle bells when you press Santa's belly." Jerry added unable to help himself.

The two of them started cracking up.

"Nah, no sweaters." Jerry said when he recovered. "She hasn't gone that far. I think it's kind of cute. I can handle this side of her once a year."

Sam looked around at the boxes of decorations waiting to be put up and the decorations that had already been expertly placed around the living room. "Well she's definitely going all out decking the halls. Plus the baking and the making of the nog. I didn't know she had it in her."

"Yeah, it caught me a little off guard too. I think she just wants to make sure that Leo really enjoys our first Christmas with the three of us together. I do too."

"Look at you Jerry Barber, family man. Shaw would be so proud."

"Shut up."

"Man you're in for it. She's going to have you going door to door and caroling or some crap like that."

"Very funny."

* * *

><p>After Jerry finished explaining himself Leo nodded in appreciation. "That's a good gift Jerry. She'll really like it."<p>

Jerry grinned. "I know. I'm the master, really I am. Now aren't you glad you didn't abandon me and decide to go with the paperweight. My gift just annihilates your little painted rock. I rule."

"I'm seven." Leo pointed out.

Jerry shrugged. "I don't care how old you are, you were going to bail on me, I get to gloat. My gift idea is better than yours was, na, na, na, na, na, na."

"That's childish."

"I'm okay with that. Why? Because I rule!" Jerry said flashing Leo the rock on sign.

* * *

><p>Traci placed the last carefully wrapped gift under the tree and stood back to admire her handiwork. It looked beautiful.<p>

"That was exhausting." Jerry said. "I think I got a papercut."

"Yeah, but it was worth it. Leo is going to be so excited when he wakes up in the morning."

Jerry looked at his watch. "You mean when he gets up in a few hours."

Traci nodded wearily.

Jerry kissed her on the cheek. "I'm going to hop in the shower."

"Want me to wash your back for you?"

Jerry looked at her in surprise. "Yeah? You're not too tired?"

"I'm not too tired to wash your back."

Jerry grinned and hugged her. "Oh God, you have no idea how much I would love for you to wash my back for me. My back needs to be washed so badly it isn't funny."

Traci laughed. "Yeah it's a dirty, dirty back."

Jerry started backing her towards the bathroom. "Filthy, it's a filthy back. You might have to scrub really vigorously, maybe lather it up a couple of times, but don't worry, I can take it."

"I bet you can."

"Good, and then I'll…I'll…Wow, way too tired to keep this euphemism going any longer. Let's go have sex in the shower," He said before giving her a long kiss and pulling her into the bathroom.

* * *

><p>Several short hours later Jerry found himself attempting to ignore the sounds coming from the other side of the bedroom door, but they wouldn't go away. He shook Traci who rolled over moaning.<p>

"Lemme lone." She muttered into the pillow.

"Wake up. Listen to that. I think it's your son. Why is the child scratching on the door like a cat?"

Reluctantly Traci cracked open her eyes. "Christmas morning. Gifts. Can't open without me. Rules."

Jerry groaned. "It's practically the crack of dawn has he no mercy? No sense of compassion?"

Traci lifted up slightly and glanced at the clock. "It's the crack of seven-thirty."

Jerry groaned. "Seven-thirty, what is he crazy?" He yelled out, "Thirty minutes, give us thirty minutes and we'll be out." He buried his head back under the comforter.

Traci pulled the comforter off of his head. "This is your fault." She said. "You were the one who wasn't satisfied and kept me up for another hour after we got out of the shower."

"I didn't hear you complaining." Jerry replied trying to pull the comforter away from her. He heard the sounds of Leo pacing back and forth from the living room to their door. "Trace, I want you to know that I really love Leo."

"I know that."

"I just want it to be perfectly clear so that if he knocks on the door again and I kill him you'll understand that it won't be because I don't love him or anything."

"Don't worry about it. I'll hold him down for you."

"Thank you for having my back. I don't think I've ever loved you more than I do right now. You're the best Babe. It's a shame that he doesn't believe in Santa anymore and I can't have the pleasure of being the one to crush his spirit and burst that bubble for him."

Forty-five minutes later Jerry sat on the sofa surveying the damage through hooded eyes. He was pretty sure that somewhere under the pile of torn wrapping paper and empty boxes Leo was playing with at least one of his new toys but at the moment he couldn't quite locate him. He looked up as Traci walked back into the living room holding two steaming hot cups of coffee. She handed him one and settled down next to him on the sofa.

"Thanks," Jerry said as he took a long sip. "You know," He whispered. We spent two hours sitting up, after work, after mass, wrapping that crap up and arranging it beautifully under the tree and he went through it all in what, fifteen minutes?"

"He's a kid Jerry."

"I'm not complaining, I'm impressed with his technique, I'm bowing before the master."

"Don't worry, the master will be cleaning it up."

"Oh, I know he will. This was great. I just wish we didn't have to work today."

"I know. Maybe the criminal element will take a break for the holidays and it will be a slow night."

"From you lips to God's ears. Oh man. Did I just say that? Maybe I have been hanging out with your Mom too much."

"See I told you, she rubs off on you. I caught myself telling Leo 'because I said so,' the other day."

Jerry laughed and reached over to pull Traci into her arms. "This is nice Trace. You did a great job, and I loved my presents."

"Thank you. I loved the earrings and the matching tennis bracelet. They're beautiful. And I love the fact that you had the top of my car repaired, and the watch, and the dress for New Years, though don't think that I don't understand that my wearing a dress on New Years Eve is more of a gift for you, but still, thank you. It's too much."

"Thank you, but there's one more thing, it's from me and Leo, wherever he is." He called out in the general direction he suspected Leo was. "Hey Leo, come up for air."

Leo appeared seemingly from beneath a pile of toy packaging, cardboard and wrapping paper.

Traci looked from Jerry to Leo. "Seriously, another gift? You're going a little overboard here Jer."

"You're so worth it. We were going to get you a spa day, but you went ballistic the last time I even suggested it."

Traci nodded and shivered. "Callaghan's post-infidelity guilt gift to Andy, no thank you. spas days are bad juju right now."

Jerry rolled his eyes. "I know, I know. Homicide's actions this year managed to ruin a lot of things for a lot of people, Jo's rep, McNally's trust, any chance of my ever liking plaid, but you shouldn't let Homicide ruin the joy of a sauna, a nice shiatsu massage and a facial for you, but I understand the sentiment. No, we got you this." He reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a long jewelry box with a ribbon and bow tied around it. "Here you go." He said as he handed it to her.

"More jewelry? Seriously? Are you sure you aren't sleeping around?" She asked jokingly.

"Just open the box funny lady."

Traci opened the box and looked inside before looking up at Jerry in confusion. "A business card?"

"Not just any business card. That's the card for Regina A. D'Amico, only the best damn realtor this side of Lake Ontario, who Leo and I went and retained last week. Alli has already gotten a couple of offers on the house, it looks like we'll be selling soon. I mean you and I have had several non-conversations about moving in together, so I thought it was about time we actually had the talk and started looking. Regina can't wait to meet you. She and Leo have gotten very close."

Traci smiled softly at him before trying to hide her pleasure. "Wow, my big gift is a business card and promise of a talk. A free business card and a long talk at that. Way to cheap out Barber."

Leo shot Jerry an annoyed look. "Hold on one second Mommy, I have something for you in my room." He said as he jumped up and went to run past them.

Jerry grabbed him by the back of his pajama shirt. "Keep your rock Judas, she's just kidding. She loves our gift."

Traci grinned and leaned over and kissed Leo. "He's right, I love it."

Leo stopped struggling. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Traci said pulling him onto her lap. She gave him a hug. "It's a great gift. I'm so happy right now."

Jerry leaned over and ruffled Leo's hair. "Come on Leo, where's your Guitar Hero game, I'll play with you before you have to get dressed to go to your Dad's."

"I want to play Dance Revolution first."

Jerry flashed Traci a pained expression. "Okay. One round. Just remember, we are never to speak of this."

"Deal." Leo said as he dove into the Christmas wreckage pile to find his new games.

Traci leaned back and sipped her latte as she watched Leo and Jerry clear a space in front of the television and set up the game. She didn't think things could get any better. "Hey Jer."

He turned around to find her smiling broadly and expectantly at him. "Can I say it?"

Jerry shook his head. "No."

Traci gave him a puppy dog look. "Please?"

Jerry laughed in defeat. "Oh God go ahead. You can say it."

"Really?"

"Yes really."

"Are you sure? You said you'd hurl if I said it."

"It's fine, I can take it. Just spit it out before I change my mind."

"Okay, you asked for it." Traci said. "Are you ready?"

"Shoot."

"BEST CHRISTMAS EVER." Traci said giggling.

Jerry grinned back at her. "For me too," he said softly.


	12. Chapter 12

New Year's Eve

Jerry checked his watch and sighed. What could she possibly be doing in there that was taking so much time? He had started to get ready thirty minutes after she started and had still spent the past twenty minutes fully dressed and ready to go waiting for her to emerge out of the bedroom. "Trace," he called out down the hall. "I'm not trying to rush you or anything, but the car will be here in five minutes, and at the rate you're going it will already be next year before we get to this shindig."

"Listen to you, Ebenezer Barber loosening up the purse strings and springing for a car tonight. Don't worry, it's barely ten-twenty, the invitation said ten to two." Traci shouted back.

"Which means we're already twenty minutes late. How do you not get that?"

"It's New Year's Eve Jerry people are going to be dropping in and out of parties all night no one expects us to arrive promptly at ten, so we get there at a quarter to, so what?"

"What exactly are we supposed to do surrounded by Metro's Top Brass for three plus hours? I mean I'm a suave and sophisticated Detective I can handle myself, but you are just a lowly fourth class constable."

"Yeah, a suave sophisticated Detective who wouldn't even be going to this event if it wasn't for his lowly constable girlfriend who actually scored the invitation. And it's lowly third class constable buddy, I got bumped up."

"Really, I missed that? And I think the term is promoted. Well congrats."

"Very funny, you gave me flowers to congratulate me, took me out to dinner even."

"Oh that was you? You know I keep a florist on retainer to send things out to all my ladies on their special days, and I can't be expected to keep track of who I go to diner with."

"So funny tonight Detective Barber," Traci said as she stepped out of the bedroom. "You're just going to be the life of the party."

"I usually am. I have to make up for all the other…" Jerry stopped short when he saw her. Traci was wearing the dress he had given her for Christmas. It was a sparkly form fitting black halter number cut low enough in the front and ending high enough above the knee to be sexy yet still tasteful. She was wearing a tailored women's tuxedo jacket over it with super sheer pantyhose and dangerously high sling back heels. Her hair was pulled to one side in a loose bun with long curls softly framing her face, and the earrings he had gotten her sparkled in her ears.

Traci did a twirl for him. "So what do you think?"

Jerry let out low whistle. "Wow. You look absolutely amazing."

Traci took in Jerry's charcoal gray suit, paired with a dark gray shirt and silvery gray tie. "So do you. I love it when you break out your mobster out on the town look, is that suit shark skin?"

"Such the funny little funny girl. I look good, okay, I look great, but you, you look unbelievable."

"Thank you." Traci said smiling as she stepped up to him and adjusted his tie.

Jerry wrapped his arms around her. "That's some dress."

"Why yes it is. Thank you for buying it, you have good taste. I clean up good don't I?"

"Babe, when you are having a bad day you look good, tonight you look phenomenal."

"You do know just what to say Detective Barber."

Jerry winked at her and pulled her closer. "Oh boy. I'm going to have a tough time making it through tonight. Why is it that the better you look in something the faster I want to get you out of it?"

Traci shrugged. "One of life's little mysteries I guess."

"But you're wearing a dress."

"I think we've covered that."

"I love dresses, dresses are convenient, dresses are our friends. I'm feeling really _really_ happy right now."

"Well then you're about to be downright delirious with joy. I'm not wearing pantyhose, these are stockings." 

Jerry looked at her. "You lie."

"Would I lie about something that important?"

Without breaking eye contact, Jerry slid his arm into her jacket and around her waist and pulled her still closer to him, while with his other hand he reached down and slowly eased under the hem of her dress sliding up her thigh pausing when his fingers hit bare flesh. He closed his eyes, smiled and toyed with the lace-covered elastic for a moment before he sighed and removed his hand from under her dress and smoothed the dress down his fingers trembling slightly. "Oh damn. I need a moment here. I think I'm going to cry."

Traci grinned wickedly. "You are so easy, it's not even a challenge anymore. Sexy dress, thigh highs and a lacy thong and you're like putty in my hands."

"I'm not proud of it." Jerry said resigned. "I'm okay with it, but not proud of it, and it takes a little more than a slinky dress and some underwear to break me."

"I'm sorry, sexy dress, thigh highs, lacy thong, F' me shoes and expensive perfume."

"Thank you, I mean I have a little self control." He inhaled deeply before loosening his arms from around her and taking a step back so he could admire her again. "Though you do smell good, and the shoes are hot, they might have to stay on later. In fact, let's just stay home tonight and celebrate alone."

"Tempting, but I promised Gail we'd go and give her moral support at her parents party."

"But you don't even like Gail," Jerry argued as he took her in his arms again and began kissing her neck as he attempted to pull her jacket off.

Traci gently but firmly pushed him away and fixed her jacket. "That's not true, she's my friend, and you better not get me wrinkled."

"Yes, but you still don't like her."

"Yes I do… well sometimes, it's complicated. That's not the point, the point is like her or not I care about her, a lot. Plus I'm often partnered with her, and if I expect her to have my back on the streets I need to be willing to have her back with her mother."

"Honestly you're better of taking your chances on the streets over taking your chances with Superintendent Peck any day. The woman is a shark disguised as goldfish. Plus, I want to check out that lacy thong and those thigh highs you're so proud of."

"Down boy. We're going to this party."

"Fine," Jerry said pouting. He pulled his phone out and checked it. "The car is outside anyway." He added as he began to help Traci into her coat. "But I'm serious, you owe me tonight, when we get home I want to see stars, as in I want my mind blown. You are going to have to pull out the Karma Sutra with some Cirque de Soliel type acrobatics."

"You've never been to Cirque de Soliel," Traci said with a laugh as she picked up her small clutch purse.

"You don't know everything about me, I've been exposed to many different things."

"Wow, so the old ball and chain dragged you to Cirque de Soliel."

"Kicking and screaming," Jerry admitted grabbing his keys off the hook.

"Maybe, but you still went. Where was your manhood Barber?"

"Stored away in my lockbox for safe keeping."

Jerry grabbed two glasses of champagne off of the tray of a passing waiter and handed one to Traci.

"This is…" Traci paused searching for the right word as she took in the scene around her. "Impressive?" She finished.

"I know I'm impressed," Jerry said. The Peck party was located in one of the more moderate sized rooms in the banquet hall, but it made up for its size in style. The room was decorated in gold and ivory with small intimate tables dotting two sides of the perimeter of the room the nicest of which were located in front of several sets of French doors that overlooked a garden that was probably lovely in daylight in the warmer months, but this evening was ablaze with white lights adorning the trees and hedges. On one side of the room a band was playing by a decent sized dance floor that had attracted a few brave souls. Waiters were working their way through the crowd carrying trays upon trays of champagne and delicious looking hors d'oeuvres.

"Not to be crass," Jerry said looking around. "But how much do you think a soiree like this costs? One hundred and fifty or so people, catered, and I mean this is good champagne. Not great, but pretty damn good. This has got to be setting them back a pretty penny. I'm thinking bribe money, yeah one of them is on the take."

Traci nudged him. "Shut up Jerry."

"Seriously, this is one costly affair to be putting on every year. How do the Peck's afford it? Someone at Casa de Peck has to be dirty, yeah this looks like drug money."

Traci giggled then forced herself to give Jerry a stern expression. "Cut it out Barber, someone is going to hear you."

"Whatever, but I sure hope Gail is planning on eloping for her big day, because with her folks having this kind of annual entertainment budget her wedding fund is shot."

"I really can't take you anywhere can I?"

"You know, I've never been invited to the Peck's New Years' Eve Bash before, a friend of mine at Twenty-seven comes all the time, his dad goes way back with Papa Peck. He used to always kid me about the perks of being a third generation cop. His career has been a cakewalk."

"Nepotism on the force? Never."

"I know, I was shocked myself. Speaking of Nepotism where is Lil' Peck anyway?"

"I don't know. I should probably go find her," Traci commented as she glanced around.

"Look what the cat drag in!"

Jerry and Traci turned to see Steve Peck barreling towards them, drink in hand. He seemed to be a little flushed.

Jerry laughed. "Peck, I see you didn't waste any time getting loading on your parents free hooch."

Steve put a familiar arm around Jerry's shoulders. "Free for you maybe, I have to pay in mingling and making the folks proud. But hey Barber, look at you rubbing elbows with upper ranks. Angling for a promotion? I know you don't qualify for my Mom's carefully selected guest list. Who'd you have to sleep with to get invited to this thing?"

"Her," Jerry said pointing to Traci. "It's a tough job, but someone has to do it."

Traci playfully swatted him. "Hi Steve. We're here as Gail's guests. Have you seen her?"

Steve took a sip from his drink and shook his head. "Not for awhile. She's been ducking into corners hiding from my Mom since she got here. Try the ladies room or behind a plant or something. You'll never guess who she dragged here as her date though." he said with a laugh. "I'll let her spring that one on you."

Traci smiled and politely excused herself. "I'll leave you two to trade witty banter while I go find Gail."

"When you see her, remind her that she can't hide from Mom all night, I refuse to manage her all by my lonesome," Steve called out.

"Hey Steve, funny thing," Jerry commented. "Your sister gets my girlfriend in here her second year on the force, but in all the years we worked together you never got me an invite."

Steve shrugged. "You never asked for one Barber. Anyway, I don't want to be here myself."

"Seriously man, I was wondering, how much does this thing cost?"

Traci spotted Gail halfway hiding behind a potted plant. She was wearing a strapless midnight blue satin cocktail dress that highlighted her ever curve and looked absolutely stunning. Nervous as all get out, but still stunning.

Gail smiled weakly at her as she approached and gave her a once over. "Nice outfit. You look good, appropriate. I was worried you'd wear something too flashy and I'd have to listen to my mother compliment you while insulting you."

"Yeah, funny how she manages to do that." Traci said dryly. "You look very nice."

"I look like I'm about to hurl, because I am."

Traci was prepared for this. It was the reason she and Jerry had gotten invited to tonight festivities. In fact Gail had broken down a couple of weeks ago while they were on patrol and practically begged Traci to come to the party and give her moral support, and maybe even help deflect some of Mama Peck's attention off of her. "Snap out of Peck!" Traci said firmly. "It's a party Gail, it's just a fancy party. As long as you don't get drunk and climb on a table and strip I'm pretty sure you won't be a disappointment to your Mom."

Gail shook her head. "You have no idea. She wants me to work the room, shmooze, mingle, and shine like the up and coming next generation Peck I'm supposed to be. This isn't a gathering of _friends_ this is Metro VIP only."

Gail looked around the room nervously, her unease growing by the second. "Do you realize that we are the only two Rookies in here? There is no one else in this room who has been on the force for less than ten years except Steve. Think about it Nash, the Department has roughly five thousand seven hundred officers and twenty-five hundred civilian employees. That's over eight thousand people in total. Out of that only about seventy-five, eighty or so of them are deemed important enough by my parents to get an invite here with their guests. This party is full of deputy chiefs, superintendents, staff sergeants, inspectors, detective sergeants, government officials, and a few select sergeants and detectives with the right connections. Including us there are only four constables even here, and one of them is Noelle who had been on the force for what, fifteen years give or take? She's practically guaranteed to make sergeant just needs to take the exam, and she's only here because she is Best's plus one. Your own boyfriend is just one suck up away from becoming Detective Sergeant, and he wouldn't be here if I didn't invite you. But I'm supposed to be all poised and impressive and a credit to my parents while everyone here outranks and out performs me!"

"You're getting hysterical Gail," Traci said gently placing a reassuring hand on her friends shoulder. "Just take a deep breath."

Gail involuntarily gagged a little. "I'm going to hurl. I need to get out of here. Quickly!"

"It's just a party Gail. Breath."

"No, it's test," Gail spat out as she began to hyperventilate. "Another chance for my mother to test me and see if I measure up and I'm going to fail and she'd going to be all disapproving and judgmental, and…" Gail gagged again. "Oh God I really am going to hurl this time."

"Here, I thought you might need this."

Traci looked up in surprise to see Luke coming up to them handing Gail a glass of champagne.

"Thanks," Gail said gratefully as she grabbed the glass and quickly downed it's contents. She took a steadying breath and the color began to slowly come back to her face. "I did need that."

Traci looked from Gail to Luke and back, comprehension slowly dawning on her. "You two are here together?"

Luke looked a little uncomfortable, while Gail gave her a look that clearly dared her to comment. "I needed a date that my mother would approve of to make it through this party. Golden Boy is a Homicide Detective with a bright future, whenever his self pity-party ends. He needed a reason to not drink himself into a stupor at the Penny for at least one night. Win win."

Luke grimaced. " I wish you'd stop calling me Golden Boy."

Traci was about to comment when she noticed Gail turning even greener than she had been a moment ago.

"Gail, here you are, I've been looking all over for you. Officer Nash, you look lovely this evening. Love the shoes."

Traci smiled as Gail's mother approached their little group. This was only her second time meeting her, and she was pleased that the Superintendent remembered her name. "Thank you, Superintendent Peck, it's a pleasure to see you again, you look wonderful. Thank you for inviting us."

"Well you are here as _Gail's_ guest, but I've been hearing really good things about you from Frank. Sergeant Best. You know department wide you have consistently been one of the higher performers out of your graduating class."

Traci blushed slightly and smiled. "Well I just try to do my best."

"Well your best is apparently much better than the efforts of most." She said giving Gail a pointed look before turning her attention back to Traci. "So who's your date?"

"Oh Detective Barber, he's also from fifteen division. He's…"

Mama Peck waved a dismissing hand at her. "I'm familiar with Detective Barber. He's the detective who linked those random car jackings to the same chop shop being used by a major car theft ring. He closed a few big cases with that one. He's been doing quite well for himself, he's in line for a promotion." She gave Traci a long considering look. "Well I always say there is no point in a talented woman with a future dating within the department unless it's someone with just as much drive as she has. If you attach yourself to someone who isn't going anywhere it will just drag you down. You now, I think I'll put both of you and the Detective down on next year's guest list, I like to encourage young talent." She turned her attention to Luke and flashed him an overly bright smile. "Detective Callaghan, are you enjoying yourself? I'm just so glad to see my daughter finally spending time with someone so much more suited to her."

"Mom," Gail said in annoyance.

"Well Gail it's true, that Craig was a lovely young man, but he seemed out of his element here last year didn't you think?"

"It's Chris Mom. His name is Chris."

"Chris, Craig, does it really matter? He's not in the picture anymore is he?" Superintendent Peck smiled at them again. "Well it was lovely chatting with you Officer Nash, Detective Callaghan. I just need to borrow Gail for a moment. Gail, I have some people I wanted you to say hello to. Come along." Mama Peck took Gail firmly by the elbow and ushered her away. Gail threw them a pleading look over her shoulder.

"I think we've been dismissed." Luke said taking a sip from his champagne glass.

"I think you're right." Traci agreed.

"There goes the woman whom the term iron fist in a silk glove was invented for."

"Velvet," Traci corrected.

"What?"

"Velvet. The term is iron fist in a velvet glove."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty much." 

"I'm pretty sure it's silk."

"If you say so." The two of them stood there for an awkward moment. Before Traci said. "Well, I guess I should go find Jerry. See you later Detective."

"Bye Nash, You look nice."

"Thanks, you too." Traci gave him a polite smile and turned to walk away. She had to work with Luke and since he seriously outranked her and she could learn a lot from him she wasn't going to be openly hostile, but she still didn't forgive him for hurting Andy and wasn't about to start getting buddy with him.

She made her way over to Jerry who was standing talking with Noelle and Frank. Noelle was glowing dressed in red draped silk jersey dress with her dreads pulled back in the front and loose and curled in the back.

"Wow, Noelle, you look great," Traci said as she leaned in to kiss her friend on the cheek."

"Thanks Traci, so do you."

Frank nodded in greeting to her before turning back to Jerry. "We'll catch up with you two later. I wanted to talk to Boyko for a few, I just spotted him over by the bar. I want to get a real drink too."

Jerry grinned. "Yeah, be prepared only the champagne is free. It's a cash bar, the Peck's aren't that generous."

Noelle laughed. "Would you want to be the one picking up the bar tab for a bunch of off duty cops?"

"Point taken. See you later."

Traci watched them walk away and then gave Jerry a questioning look. "Why do I feel like Frank is uncomfortable around me socially?"

Jerry shrugged. "It's not that he's exactly uncomfortable, he likes you well enough, it's just that he's your commanding officer, and you're a rookie so there's a line there, but at the same time you date one of his best friends, you're friendly with his girlfriend and you've been known to hang out with his two other closest friends. It's a weird situation to maneuver sometimes. It will right itself eventually. It's not like you're going anywhere. He knows that you and I will be together for the long haul, so he'll get used to socializing with you." Jerry wrapped his arm around Traci's waist and pulled her close for a quick kiss on the cheek.

"So, did you find Lil' Peck, is she holding it together? Oh and Trace you have got to try the crab cakes. They are ridiculous, like little lumps of seafood heaven. And the stuffed mushrooms? Divine. I honestly never thought I'd describe anything as being divine, but it's really the only word for them."

Traci rolled her eyes. She could never figure out how someone who stayed as thin Jerry always seemed to be eating something. "Forget the hors d'oeuvres, I've got dish for you. You'll never guess who is Gail's date."

"Who?"

"Callaghan."

Jerry looked surprised for a moment then shrugged it off. "Eh, kind of makes sense if you think about it, she's definitely his type."

Traci looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean his type? She's nothing like Andy."

"What made you think Andy was really his type?" Jerry asked pointedly. "Remember when you said that the really messed up thing about how the whole Luke/Andy/Jo thing went down was the fact that Luke was supposed to be McNally's safe choice, a change from the guys she usually dated?"

Traci nodded.

"Well," Jerry began. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe McNally was Callaghan's safe choice?"

Traci stared at him. "Oh. Oh. Oooo. You mean…?"

"Yup."

"Jo?"

"You got it."

"Gail?"

"Exactly. I mean Luke likes the nice, clean-cut girl next-door McNally types well enough. Who doesn't? But he really likes, or rather really goes for the ball busting, driven, complicated, dark and twisty damaged, snarky hard asses. Maybe he likes the challenge or something, or maybe he's into masochism. Whatever, but Peck is definitely his type."

"Really?"

"More or less."

"So what's your type Barber?" 

Jerry answered without hesitation, "You."

"Good answer. You're really starting to get the hang of this whole boyfriend thing."

"I know. I impress myself even. Watch this. Babe, would you like me to track down one of the waiters and get you some of those incredible hors d'oeuvres?"

"That would be nice."

"Okay then love muffin. I'll be right back."

"Call me love muffin again and I'll shoot you dead. Seriously. No court would convict me."

"What time is it?"

Jerry glanced down and checked his watch. "Eleven-thirty. Wow. We should be out somewhere surrounded by friends, or better yet at a romantic getaway just the two of us. I can't believe I'm ringing in the New Year surrounded by The Powers That Be. It's down right depressing."

"Stop complaining, you know more people here than I do. Anyway, it's a good thing for us to be here. Careers aren't just made on what you do, they are also made by having the right people notice what you do, so it pays to make sure the right people know who you are."

"Is that a fact Nash?"

"That's a fact."

"Are you going all Machiavellian on me? Strategically maneuvering, Madame Puppeteer working towards your master plan?"

"No, I'm just learning to accept the fact that hard work alone can only take you so far, you need to develop the right contacts, position yourself. It's never to early to…" Traci paused and looked at Jerry thoughtfully. "Umm, when was the last time you talked to Alli?"

Jerry laughed. "You really need to practice the art of the segue, and why would you bring up Alli? I thought the plan was to have a good time tonight."

"She told you she was going out with friends tonight right?"

"Yeah she said she had been catching up with some old friends since she'd been in town and she was hanging with them tonight, some party or something, I didn't really ask for details, I mean the only friends we really had in common were…." Jerry closed his eyes as an unwelcome thought entered his mind. "Dan and Jen Vickers." He finished apprehensively.

Trace nodded thoughtfully. "Dan and Jen Vickers, the friends who introduced the two of you, the friends she got in the divorce, and let me guess, that same Dan Vickers is your friend from 27 who attends this party every year right?"

Jerry sighed and slowly opened his eyes. "Yup. You really will make a great detective one day. She's here isn't she, Alli?"

Traci glanced back over at the bar and the woman who had caught her attention a moment ago. "Yes, I do believe she is."

Jerry groaned, but didn't bother to turn around. He figured Traci would be able to recognize Alli by now. "When did my life become a bad soap opera plot?" He grabbed another glass of champagne from off the tray of a passing waiter and downed it.

"I don't know about bad plot, I mean long suffering divorcee finally finds love and happiness with unbelievably hot young co-worker and crazy ex-wife returns to cause havoc. Sounds like must see TV to me."

"You aren't helping here Traci," he sighed.

"Just doing the best that I can under the circumstances buddy. So how do you want to play this?"

"Is it too late to run?"

Traci looked back towards the bar just in time to lock eyes with Alli. She noted the exact moment recognition dawned on Alli by the change in the other woman's expression and the smiled that slowly curved the corners of her mouth.

"Yeah," she said as she slowly sipped her champagne. "I'd say it's way too late."


	13. Chapter 13

_Okay, I'm back. Sorry for the delay. You know life has a way of killing the creative proccess sometimes, but I swear as long as you keep reading I'll see this through to the end._

* * *

><p>Traci watched as Jerry downed yet another glass of champagne and sighed. She was really getting sick of the hold Jerry's ex seemed to have over him. She could almost handle it better if she thought he was still in love with Alli, or something along those lines. Then her reaction would be simple, cut her losses, dump him, and try to mend her broken heart. This was different though, more complicated. She was reasonably sure that Jerry's problems with Alli weren't about any unresolved romantic feelings, but something between them was definitely unresolved. Jerry seemed to be still tied to his ex by feelings of guilt or regret or some sort of indebtedness that allowed her to manipulate him and it was really becoming annoying to say the least. Whenever his ex was involved Jerry turned into someone else, someone she didn't particularly like that much, and that had Traci worried.<p>

"I don't think alcohol is going to help the situation," she told him.

Jerry looked at her and then back at his glass in confusion. "Alcohol? That wasn't really alcohol, that was more like ginger ale with a kick. That didn't even take the edge off. I need a _real_ drink." He winced in pain as a thousand different scenarios of how this evening was going to blow up in his face flashed through his mind. "Oh God, I don't feel so good…"

Traci sighed. "Suck it up Jerry. Don't let her rattle you. It's not like she came here deliberately to screw with you. You said it yourself; you've never been invited before. How was she to know you'd even be here tonight? You didn't tell her did you?"

"No, of course not. She probably just used her psychic powers and figured it out."

Traci scoffed and shook her head in disbelief. "Wow, I'm so glad you're looking at the situation realistically and not ascribing some sort of mythic powers to the old ball and chain. Geez Jerry."

"Not loving the old ball and chain bit. I'm serious Trace. What the hell is she doing here? This can't be good, these are my bosses. What if she does something that makes me look bad?"

"She isn't here with you, she can't do anything that makes you look bad unless you let her. Besides, you're divorced. Jerry we're in a room full of coppers, we're like the most incestuous group of partner swapping people around, you know we like to keep it in the family. At least ten other people here used to be married each other and are now here with their new partners."

"More like twelve, Inspector Garrison has two ex-wives who remarried into the force and both of them are here, but I get your point."

"You do know that you go to pieces at the hint of conflict or contentious situations?"

Jerry scoffed "That's not true, I absolutely thrive on _other people's_ conflict and contentious situations, it's one of my favorite things, the reason I get up in the morning. It's right up there after the joy of being with you, and various assorted baked goods. I get up in the hopes that I can watch some other poor sucker squirm, I just don't like to be the one squirming, it's unpleasant and kind of icky"

"Wow, no adult male should ever use the word icky, but I did like the whole the waking up for me thing, well played."

"Charm under pressure, it's my new defense mechanism."

"Well prepare to be extremely charming, your good buddy Dan is heading this way."

Jerry turned and watched as Dan separated from the group he was standing with and nervously approached them.

"Dan, long time no see." Jerry said endeavoring to sound much calmer than he felt.

"Yes it has been awhile," Dan said nodding vigorously.

"How's it going?"

"Fine, fine." Dan looked around nervously for a moment. He spotted Alli and his wife Jen moving towards them. "Look Jer, I never thought that you would be here," he said quickly, "I mean I would have at least called you and given you a heads up and all. Alli's here with Staff Sergeant Harris from 27. It's nothing serious, they were both at our Christmas party a few weeks ago and Jen introduced them. He's going through a divorce, he just got promoted to staff sergeant, it's his first year coming to the party, and he needed a date."

Jerry nodded. "No problem, don't even worry about it. I'm pretty sure one of the conditions of my divorce was that Al and I are both free to see other people. Speaking of which," he added as he slipped an arm around Traci's waist and pulled her slightly closer, "This is Traci, my girlfriend." Jerry mentally gave himself a pat on the back. Well done Barber, If you had of forgotten to add about the "G" word when you introduced Trace you'd have two women to be scared of tonight.

Dan smiled at Traci and said "Nice to meet you." Just then Jen and Alli joined their group.

Jen Vickers smiled tightly at Jerry. "Jerry, nice to see you here."

"Jerry sweetheart, what a surprise," Alli said smiling brightly.

Jerry gave her pained smile back. "Surprise is not quite the word I was looking for, I was leaning more towards hearty attack inducing shock. You look great Al," he added managing to not flinch when she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.

"Oh, and Officer Nash," Alli said as she turned to face Traci. It's lovely to see you again.

"It's Traci," Jerry said.

"Well it's not like you introduced us properly before." Alli reminded him with a smile.

"Alli, I uh… I mean, uh. Well Trace you've met Alli, and this is her friend, Dan's wife Jen. Jen, Alli this is Traci Nash. My _girlfriend_ Traci."

Jen smiled frostily and shook Traci's hand. "Nice to meet you Traci."

She turned to her husband. "Dan honey, Inspector Garrison was looking for you we should go over and speak to him.

Trace watched and Jen Vickers grabbed her husband and quickly ushered him away. Nice move, drop a bomb and escape before the blast.

"Well it's nice to properly meet you Terri, I feel at a disadvantage, Jerry's obviously told you all about me and he's told me nothing about you." Alli said as she very obviously gave Traci the once over.

"Actually all Jerry ever said about you was that you were his ex wife. I guess he didn't feel like there was anything else to tell." Traci said sweetly. She groaned a little to herself. Wow that was cheap and catty, a little beneath me. It felt good, but it was beneath me.

Jerry stood there for a moment, trying to figure out the safest way to steer the conversation into calmer waters.

Alli laughed. "I guess I deserved that," she said to Traci with a smile. "I'll admit, the Mrs. Barber thing at the station was a bit over the top."

She turned and caught Jerry grimacing. "Oh God Jerry, it's nice to see some things haven't changed, you still get all flustered and fall apart at the slightest hint of conflict."

Traci's eyes narrowed. Forget the fact that she said practically the same thing less than five minutes ago, Alli was actually enjoying his squirming.

The three of them stood there uncomfortably for a moment before they were interrupted.

"Jerry, Good to see you, haven't seen you at one of this things before."

Jerry looked over in relief to spot his former mentor joining them.

"Um, yeah, first time. It's great to see you Lou."

"Alli, you're looking wonderful, so glad to see you back in town."

"Thank you Lou."

Lou looked questioningly from Jerry to Alli to Traci. Jerry took the hint and stepped even closer to Traci making a point to put his arm back around her waist. "Lou, let me introduce you, this is Officer Traci Nash one of 15 Division's best and brightest, and Traci this is Acting Staff Superintendent Lou Ocampo, the Unit Commander for Detective Services and my one claim to a friend in high places in the TPD."

Traci smiled as she reached out to take Lou's extended hand. "Of course I know who Superintendent Ocampo is."

Jerry grinned, "Traci has committed the Department's organizational chart to memory."

Lou laughed. "Well it always pays to know exactly who to suck up to and not embarrass yourself in front of. Jerry, I'm so glad I ran into you tonight, I was hoping to get a chance to speak to you about a couple of things."

Jerry glanced at Alli and then at Traci. "Umm, this isn't the best time Lou, I'll give you a call…"

"Nonsense Jerry, you and Lou should go catch up. Traci will be fine with me. I don't bite." Alli said.

Traci smiled reassuringly at Jerry. "Of course we'll be fine, go have your talk." She'd be perfectly all right. She wasn't about to let Alli screw with her head like she did so effortlessly with Jerry, nor was she about to make Andy's mistake and let her boyfriend's ex walk all over and humiliate her.

"Don't worry Jerry," Lou added with a laugh. "I'll have you back with your date in no time."

Jerry lightly squeezed Traci's waist before reluctantly dropping his arm from around her. "I'll be right back, He said before he walked off with Lou.

Alli watched him walk away until he was out of earshot and turned back to Traci. "So Terri," she said in a condescending tone. "How do you like police work? I remember when Jerry was still in uniform, he used to come home each night and tell me before bed…"

Still smiling Traci cut her off mid sentence. "Don't bother."

"Excuse me?" Alli said in surprise.

Traci looked at her and flashed her another smile that didn't begin to reach her eyes. "I said don't bother, as in don't bother trying to play me, I see right through you and unlike Jerry I have no problem calling you on it. I'm going to save both of us a lot of time and energy here. You don't like me and I damn sure don't like you so don't think you're going to stand here making small talk with me while you throw little jabs at me trying to feel out my weaknesses so you can exploit them. I don't spar when I fight, I throw down, and if I wanted to I could get just as low and dirty as you do, so you don't want to mess with me. I don't know exactly what game it is you're trying to play with Jerry, but you know what, I'm not planning to lose any sleep trying to figure it out. Unfortunately for him you and Jerry have history and if he chooses to deal with your bullshit games because of some misguided sense of nostalgia or because he just isn't fed up enough to call you on it that's his business, but I'm not about to get in the middle of that mess." Traci noticed Jerry casting nervous glances back in their direction and turned up the wattage on her smile to convince him that everything was fine.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Alli said feigning innocence.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, and now, I'm done. I'm tired of you. That's all of my time you get tonight. Good talk though." Traci turned on her heel and walked away. She silently thanked God when she spotted Noelle watching her from where she stood with Frank and Boyko. Her dramatic departure would have come off as lame if she wound up wandering around like an idiot looking for someone else to talk to.

Noelle said a few words to her companions before heading in Traci's direction. "Hey Nash, you okay?" She asked as they made their way towards an empty table.

"I'm fine now." Traci answered taking a seat.

"Was that just Allison Barber who I saw you chatting it up with?"

"The one and only."

"How'd that go? I was going to come over and interrupt if I saw you kick your heels off, pull your hair back, slap on some Vaseline and square up."

"Thought about it for a second, but high school is over. Unfortunately. She really is a piece of work isn't she?"

"You have no idea."

"And you do?"

"Do I. Man, Allison Barber. I thought she was history until I heard she stopped by the station a month ago."

"You knew her?"

"Of course." Noelle paused for a moment as though she was choosing what she would say next. "I got to know her some. When they were dating and during the early years of their marriage Jerry used to bring her around the Penny sometimes, and I'd see her at parties and get togethers. I even went to the wedding, we all did. Plus she and Zoe Shaw were sort of close for a while there too. It wasn't until the problems started that Jerry tried to keep her under the radar."

"So you saw all the drama?" Traci asked.

Noelle shrugged slightly. "Didn't have to actually see it to know it was going down. Jerry was still in uniform when a lot of their problems started, he did a pretty good job containing a lot of the crazy stuff from most people, but well it's hard to keep stuff like that away from the people you work closely with everyday. It was right before he made detective. I saw things, heard things. I mean it's not like he and I had any deep conversations on the subject, but it wasn't a secret that both his marriage and his wife were unraveling. He held it together for a while, made detective, started to make a bit of a name for himself, but at the end, he was stressed out all the time, wasn't really focusing at work. It was a bad time for him."

Noelle looked over in Jerry's direction and then searched the crowd for a moment until she spotted Alli. "To hear Sam and Frank talk about it you would have thought Allison Barber was the Antichrist, but she wasn't. She was just your standard issue, run of the mill bitch. Okay, maybe she was Super Bitch, and sure her problems made everything worse, but still Jerry let that situation go on way too long, he should have just walked away nipped that all in the bud, years earlier, but he didn't, he let it fester and she spent years jerking him around and making him miserable. Her leaving him was the best thing that ever happened to him. The change was night and day, like the weight of the world was lifted off of his shoulders."

Noelle laughed. "You know that's probably what has her so pissed off now."

Traci looked at her questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"I always thought that Alli overplayed her hand with that move," Noelle added.

"What move?"

"Leaving. Like I said, she used to jerk Jerry around all the time, and he always jumped. She had this weird hold on him. It wasn't like him, not the way he was before he met her, or the way he is now. I mean Jerry is an agreeable guy and sure he'd rather compromise than fight most of the time, but he's no pushover, but with Alli, she just bulldozed right over him, played him like a pro for years, even during the breakdown she was playing him. I mean sure, she had real problems, but she also got off on making that man's life miserable, always testing his love and loyalty, seeing how far she could push him. But when she just up and left him, skipping town like she did, sending him divorce papers with no warning. She made a bad move there, overplayed her hand. I always figured she thought that Jerry would come running, try to get her back and all. I doubt it ever occurred to her that he would just let her go."

"So he was pretty messed up over the divorce?"

Noelle laughed. "Messed up over the _divorce_? Are you kidding me? He was pretty messed up over the _marriage_, during the divorce he was the best I'd seen him in years. I remember how it went down when she served him. I was riding with Ollie, we had responded to a home invasion and Jerry was the lead detective in the case. Ollie warned me that Jerry had just gotten served his divorce papers the night before and he would probably be off his game so we needed to be ready to cover for him. Traci, I kid you not, the man was exactly the opposite. He was so on point he could have used his handling of the case as a teaching model at the Academy. Totally focused, attentive, breezed through his witness interviews, delegated like a pro, followed up on every lead, case closed, perps in lock up in under forty-eight hours. He wasn't messed up, he looked like a man who had finally gotten his life back."

Jerry came up to the table carrying a champagne glass in each hand. "Ladies, I thought you might need a refill since it's almost midnight."

Traci took one of the offered glasses and glanced around realizing that people were beginning to gather around the two large flat screen televisions that were airing the broadcast of the countdown at Times Square in New York.

Noelle smiled and shook her head. "No thanks, you two enjoy yourselves." At Traci's curious look she added in explanation, "I'm the designated driver and all since I'm certainly not going to let Frank get behind the wheel tonight."

Traci looked at her for a moment before dismissing the half formed thought that flashed in her mind.

Noelle slid her chair back and stood up. "Let me go find Frank before it's already 2012. You too have a good night, and Happy New Year."

Jerry slid into the seat that Noelle had just vacated. "You see, Alli shows up and the whole world is turned upside down, when was the last time you've seen Williams turn down free booze?"

Traci laughed. "Let it go Jerry."

The tables all had glittery party hats and noisemakers left on them to help the guests celebrate the New Year. Traci placed an ivory paper top hat on Jerry's head and grabbed a gold colored one for her self.

"Let's just forget everything for a minute."

Jerry grinned at her. It works for me."

He slid his chair over next to hers and pulled her close.

The party guests started chanting. "Ten .. nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… Happy New Year!"

Jerry leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. "Happy New Year Officer Nash."

"Happy New Year Detective Barber," Traci said with a smile just as gold and ivory balloons were released and began to rain down around them.

Jerry looked up. "Now this is so cheesy."

"Way to ruin the moment Jerry, and it's nice."

"It is nice," Jerry said grudgingly. "But it's still cheesy and possibly dangerous. A bunch of drunk jumpy coppers and the sound of balloons popping? It just screams trouble to me, don't know why."

"Nice to see your sense of humor returning."

"Slowly but surely." Jerry paused and looked at her carefully. "So, are you planning on telling me what you and Alli were talking about? You were smiling so hard I thought your face was going to split in two."

"Worried?"

"Not really, just wondering if I need to start setting aside bail money and lining up interviews with lawyers for you, you know, just in case."

"Don't bother, Alli and I just came to an understanding."

Jerry studied her for a moment before deciding to let the matter drop. "So, I think I've had my fill of this place. I'm ready to go, what about you? Have you hobnobbed enough? Are your babysitting duties over?"

"I've hobnobbed my fill for the year, and I think Gail is safe in Homicide's hands."

"So do you want to make our escape?

He looked around for a moment until he spotted Alli standing with her date, sipping on a glass of champagne. "Aw man seriously? Look at that, she's drinking. She shouldn't be drinking. I don't know what med's she's on right now, but it doesn't matter, alcohol and anti-psychotics don't mix. She shouldn't be drinking.

Traci held her tongue. Everything in her screamed for her to step in and put her foot down, but she fought it.

Jerry looked at Traci and then back over at Alli. " I can handle this. Give me a second and hold that thought, don't move. I'll be right back."

Traci watched him dash off before downing her glass of champagne. She wanted to scream. Just when she thought they had successfully made it through the night without the ex wife from hell ruining everything Jerry had to run off and go save Alli from herself. This was not cool. What made matters even worse was that he had left her sitting by herself.

"Okay, we're good," Jerry, said from behind her as he placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Let's blow this Popsicle stand. We lucked out, the car should be here to pick us up in a couple of minutes."

Traci looked up at him in confusion, "That was quick. What happened?"

"I took care of it," Jerry said with a shrug.

"What did you do?"

Jerry slid into the seat next to her and leaned in close. "I found Jen and told her that Alli is still on medication and that she probably shouldn't be drinking and that someone should keep an eye on her, but it couldn't be me because I was spending the evening with my hot girlfriend."

Traci smiled. "Hot _young_ girlfriend. If you're going to be obnoxious about it you might as well go all out."

"Good point. My hot _young_ girlfriend."

"Makes you feel all icky doesn't it, putting the emphasis on young."

Jerry laughed. "A little bit, yeah."

"I understand. You can just expound on my hotness for the rest of the evening and leave out references to my youth if it makes you feel better."

"You're all heart Nash."

"I am aren't I? Makes you happy I let you hang around."

Jerry grinned. "It does make happy. Seriously, I might seem all calm and cool on the outside but inside I'm as giddy as a school girl."

"So we can leave and you won't spend the whole night freaking out over Mrs. Barber?"

Jerry took a deep breath. "The _former_ Mrs. Barber isn't my date, I didn't come here with her, and she's not my responsibility. I came here with you Trace. You are the person I'm with, and you are the person I want to spend my evening with."

Traci smiled. "What if she makes a scene?"

"I'm betting she won't, but even if she does, it's not my problem right? Let's get out of here."

"You don't have to ask me twice. Wow, refusing to get pulled into the drama, now that's very sexy of you. I am feeling seriously hot for you right now Detective since you aren't sweeping in to save Alli from herself and I don't have to catch a ride home with Frank and Noelle, or God help me Luke and Gail, and then act like I'm not pissed off when you get home."

"You want me to go over to her and throw in a 'Frankly my Dear I don't give a damn' or something for good measure?"

"Oooo, stop. That would just be too much for me, I don't know if I could handle it, I might try to have my way with you on the dance floor or something."

Jerry laughed as he grabbed her hand and lifted it to his lips. "You are really being a great sport about this."

"You're only saying that because you don't know what I said to the missus when you left us alone."

"Did you invite her out on the lake for a boat ride?"

Traci slow shook her head. "Nah, thinking of saving that for spring."

Jerry shrugged. "Well then we're good, I don't need to know. Let's get out of here, you're wearing a dress and thigh highs."

"I was starting to think that you had forgotten."

"I could never forget something like that, it's seared into my brain, I just got distracted for a moment. I will get our coats from the coat check. Do you think they pay extra to get someone to check coats or is it included in the package deal? Maybe I can get some of those crab cakes and mushrooms and even some champagne in a doggy bag," Jerry added.

"If you steal anything here I'm going to swear I don't know you."

"That's what I love about you Trace. You always have my back."


End file.
